A Warm Light for all Mankind
by NorseGirl23
Summary: Steve was plunged into a world he barely even recognized and with almost everyone he knew gone, and he crosses paths with Alice who upon first glance was a normal girl who was raised on a farm. Darkness begins to descend on the world with no one to stop it. Will the mysterious blur be able to help the Avengers? And why does Alice know so much about it?
1. Genesis

It started off as a simple day. Then the meteors hit. A couple was driving from the town of Smallville back to their farm, when they crashed their truck. The man, one Jonathan Kent, scrambled out the wreck to find a little girl, smiling up at him.

"Martha?" He called to his wife.

They would be found picking through the burning corn field, Martha holding the child. He wanted to find where the little girl came from.

"Kids just don't fall out of the sky, Martha."

"Then where did she come from?"

"Don't know, but she must have parents."

They stood at the ridge of a large crater, seeing a strangely designed spaceship.

"If she does, then they're definitely not from Kansas," she mused, holding the little girl tighter. He looked up at the sky.

"Sweetheart, we can't keep her. We gonna tell people we found her in a field?"

"We didn't find her. She found us."

* * *

Alice Kent met Darcy Lewis their first day of high school. It pretty much involved Alice tripping and knocking all her books and Darcy's to the ground.

"Slick moves there," Darcy said, trying to help her to her feet, but Alice looked pale and was about to throw up. "You okay?'

"Fine. I'm fine," Alice choked out. She noticed that Darcy wore a green meteorite necklace around her neck.

Darcy handed Alice all her books, and she dropped them all before falling to the ground again.

"You'd be the world's greatest weapon, slugger. Use your clumsiness on world leaders."

* * *

They met again when Alice was walking home on the bridge. Darcy was driving fast and talking on her phone. She lost control of her car and hit Alice. Both of them ended up in the creek. Alice acted quickly and pulled the top of the car off and swam Darcy to the surface.

"I swore I hit you!" Darcy said weakly when she regained consciousness.

"Just lucky I was nearby."

They became best friends after that.

* * *

"Allie," her father told her. "It's time you know."

She looked at her father, definitely confused. "Know about what?"

"Your parents," he struggled. "They weren't from around here."

Her eyes lit up. "Where were they from?"

He looked to the night sky as an answer.

"You saying I'm from another planet?"

Jonathan gave her a look that she took to mean yes.

"You stash my ship in the attic?" she demanded.

"Storm cellar."

* * *

"She is Kal-El of Krypton, our infant daughter. Please protect her and deliver from evil. We will be with you, Kal-El, for all the days of your life."

* * *

"Lara, she was my biological mother's real name," Allie told her mother.

"How did you know that?" she looked at her child in shock.

"She put me in the ship. I thought no one loved me. She was crying."

Her mother understood Lara's pain.

"I can't believe I forgot about it."

"You didn't. Your first word was 'Lara'," her mother told her, hugging Alice to her. "A mother's love never dies."

* * *

"I was always different," Alice told her parents. "You know it. I knew it. I never really thought about it. Losing my whole family. A whole race of people just like me. For the first time I'm ready to stop running from my destiny. From who I really am."

Her mother handed her a suit, made from her blankets from when she came down to Earth. The symbol of her house and of hope sewn on the chest. Alice would be that beacon of hope.

* * *

AlN: Kind of think about Smallville, only not as long, and that Clark was a girl?


	2. Appearnces

Darcy's mother complained that she barely visited. That woman never understood how much Jane really needed her to help her function as a normal human being. When the calls and hundreds of emails failed, she sent Alice to retrieve her.

Their car broke down near some town on the edge of Kansas. At first they did not think anything of if. Until one night, they took Darcy and beat Alice. Darcy ended up being tied to a stake to be their sacrifice.

The sticks were set on fire, and then Alice appeared. She grabbed Darcy out of the inferno, walking through the flames.

"This is a trick!" an older man yelled, slowly backing away from them.

"Look at what she's been through, Joshua, and she's still alive," a younger man countered. "It's a sign!"

Everyone began to back away at the young man's words. Darcy noticed that Alice's burns began to heal.

"Yes, it's a sign," Darcy said, getting all dramatic. "Move back. Far, far away. You are not worthy to be in her presence."

The old man grabbed a gun and pointed it at them.

"Drop you weapon and beg for forgiveness," Darcy dropped her voice a little, moving closer to the shaking crowd. "She is a messenger sent from the Heavens!"

"I don't believe you," the old man was shaking.

"Oh you better believe it. Because if you don't listen, she will strike in great vengeance and furious anger," Darcy was trying not to smirk. "She will rain fire upon you and raze your crops!"

Alice sighed. "Amen."

"Let's get away from these children of the corn. Moms got to be worried."

Alice grabbed Darcy and sped away, leaving the stunned people behind. They all began to kneel in reverence to her.

* * *

A young kid was running with two older and bigger ones chasing after him.

"I got nothin' else!" he kept trying to yell. He stopped in an alleyway. A tall fence blocked him.

They did not believe him and cornered him. The boy closed his eyes and moved his arms in what he hoped were punches. A gush of wind came, and a red and blue blur knocked out the two older boys.

The younger boy stared at them in surprise. To the kid's left, there was an "S" inside a shield burned to the side of a building.

* * *

A store owner was struggling to give the robber all the money, but there was not a whole lot.

"That's all. I swear!" The store owner's voice cracked in fear.

The robber only smirked and pointed a gun at him. A red and blue blur appeared and knocked the robber to the ground. The gun lied, twisted, on the ground. Next to him, a piece of metal showed the unmistakable "S."

* * *

At the newly constructed Stark Tower, a helicopter was trying to land. Pepper Potts was inside getting back from a meeting on the other side of the city. The pilot lost control, and the helicopter began to slide off the building.

A red and blue blur appeared out of nowhere to catch the helicopter and push it back onto to the building. It all happened before Iron Man could show up.

"What was that?" Pepper asked Tony, who shrugged.

On the tail of the helicopter, there was an "S."

* * *

It was during that alien invasion where a group of civilians were trying to run for safety. They were surrounded by armed creatures, fearing for their lives. A red and blue blur ran through the aliens, knocking them out, allowing those civilians to escape.

An "S" was burned onto the street.

* * *

During the days that followed, a blur could be seen helping with the rescue efforts. It would lift parts of the fallen buildings to aid extraction of the trapped. It would lift and carry off the injured to the medics. Everywhere the blur went, there was always that "S" following.


	3. Meetings

Alice Kent, formerly of Smallville, Kansas, moved in with Darcy Lewis, the ever-faithful lab assistant to Jane Foster. Those two were friends, but one could never understand their friendship. Alice was always the mild-mannered, silent type with a steady job as a reporter, and she always dressed nice when she was in public. Darcy was the complete opposite. She wore anything and everything she owned, and her brain-to-mouth filter was nonexistent. Her job only came to be because she needed the credit, and she was the only one who applied. Now, she cannot even get a new job because SHIELD seems to consider her as a liability, but through it all she and Jane did become close friends, and Darcy began to suspect that there was no one who could take better care of Jane than herself.

Why were they roommates?

Alice was newly arrived to New York City, and she knew almost no one. Darcy's past roommates left, always muttering at how crazy she was. Despite their differences, Alice and Darcy did get along. There was a time when they could almost finish each other's sentences. Plus, Alice saved her life several times since they first met, so Darcy knew that Alice would always have her back.

"Allie," Darcy remarked seeing her old friend for the first time in a couple years. "I never thought I'd see you not dressed up."

Alice looked at her t-shirt and sweatpants and shrugged. "Lazy Sunday." She dug a hand into her right pocket and began to frantically began to look for something. "Where's my phone?"

"You'd lose your own head if it wasn't attached to your glasses."

Alice almost laughed. She walked out the apartment and looked for her cell phone in the hallway and walked into someone walking to his apartment.

"Sorry," she stammered. "Wasn't paying attention."

"Allie, did you run into another person?! I can't leave you alone," Darcy joked, coming out of their apartment. "Oh, hi, Steve."

* * *

Steve just got back from running. It was something he did when times got tough for him, which happened a lot lately. Much had changed over the past seventy years. He was deep in thought on the way to his apartment, and a neighbor walked right into him. His serum-enhanced reflexes stopped her from falling to the ground.

The woman was stammering an apology, but Steve did not hear her. She had long pale hair and ice-blue eyes, which held some sadness and stubbornness, and she wore glasses.

"Allie, did you run into another person?! I can't leave you alone," Steve heard the lab assistant and noisy neighbor, Darcy, yell as she was coming out of her apartment. "Oh, hi, Steve."

The woman, Allie, laughed. "I strictly remember you almost blowing up our school's bathrooms. You know the week I was gone?"

Darcy snorted. "Not my fault the science teacher sucked at locking the storage room door."

Allie took a step back from Steve. "I'm Alice Kent, Darcy's new babysitter."

"Excuse me? I'm the one who has to keep an eye on you!"

"I'm Steve Rogers," he shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Kent."

"How 'bout Allie?" She stammered, snatching back her hand. "We are neighbors."

"That means she likes you!" Darcy called out to them, earning a mock-glared from Allie. "What? It does."

Allie pulled a phone out of her left pocket. "I found it."

"Yeah, you are babysitting me."

* * *

"Our head of PR never makes it past the first six months," Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries and the ever-patient girlfriend of Tony Stark, said to Alice Kent. "I'll warn you that there are already bets by some of the employees on how long you'll last."

"I grew up in Smallville, Kansas," Alice stammered, leaving that as a logical explanation, and sadly, it was.

Pepper gave her small smile. "You'll know why they never make it."

Alice followed her through the tour of the newly reconstructed Tower, listening to every PR nightmare that Tony caused for the last person. They walked past a lab, and Darcy was deep in conversation with a nervous-looking scientist.

"When Tony brought Doctor Banner to the Tower," Pepper finished, a hint of bitterness coloring her tone. "The last one pretty much insulted the man. It took everything we had to not have Tony kill the man."

Darcy noticed Alice and waved her into the lab. "One moment?"

Pepper smiled.

"What do you want?" Alice asked, smirking a little.

"Why are you wearing heels? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Maybe if you didn't steal my flats, I wouldn't be in this situation," Alice replied, glaring at Darcy's feet.

"You stole them first!"

"More like stealing them back."

A chuckle came from behind them. Bruce Banner was watching their little exchange in amusement.

"This your new roommate?" he asked Darcy.

"No, I'm taking care of her," Darcy answered, smiling at him. "She would not have survived high school without me."

Alice thought differently as she left them in the lab.

Her first day was long. It pretty much involved Stark and his inability to keep his mouth shut. Alice was starting to see why her current job was so unpopular. At the end of the day, when she was about to leave the Tower, she ran into a familiar face. Steve.

According to Darcy, Steve worked security for Stark, but Alice knew there was more to it than that, given the way Darcy could not stop laughing when she said it.

Alice tripped. Steve caught her, again, but she was not paying attention. Distant yelling was filling her ears. She stammered a quick apology and stumbled out of the Tower as quickly as her coordination allowed her, leaving behind a confused Steve.

* * *

Somehow they got a hold of the Chitauri weapons, and they were at the UN building. Only Iron Man and Captain America were there to help free the hostages. It was not working out so well. The Captain was wondering if it was a good idea to call in Banner, when a red and blue blur raced past him. The hostages appeared behind him and Iron Man, leaving behind their confused attackers. They took one gun and aimed it at him, and that same blur knocked out each attacker, and their weapons were twisted and broken. Near them there was a piece of metal with an "S" inside a shield burned on it.

* * *

A/N: Please read and review!


	4. Memoria

A/N: Please Read and Review!

* * *

_"My daughter, I only had the joy for knowing you a few weeks. I wish I could be with you, always to guide you and protect you," Her mother's voice was full of sadness._

_"We don't have much time." Her father's voice was firm as well as saddened._

_"My dearest Kal-El, our love will always be with you. I can already see you carry your father's independent spirit."_

_"But more importantly, your mother's never ending bravery and compassionate heart."_

_"Your father tells me that the new world your journeying to, Earth, is full of complicated beings capable of great emotion. My wish is for you to live a full and wonderful life, but I need you to know you were born of a great love. And, your brilliant father has devised a way for you to carry on that love without us."_

_"The ship I designed to carry you to your destiny can only hold one Kryptonian, one who has so much potential, so unlike your father."_

_"No."_

_"Your mother and I cannot come with you, to do so would burden your innocent soul with our frailties and failures. But you have within you the best of both of us, and I am sending you with all my knowledge and none of my ego or regrets. They will die with me here on Krypton. Whatever trials I put you through, I will never lose faith in you."_

_"Quickly, before it's too late. We may not have been able to save our planet. . ."_

_"But we are confident you will become Earth's greatest savior. And never doubt that, just as you're a part of us, we will always be a part of you. Farewell, my child."_

_"Farewell."_

_"Put her inside, Lara. Our time has passed. The hourglass is empty."_

_"What if they don't like her?"_

_"Lara, her destiny is set. As is ours."_

_"Good-bye my sweet Kal-El."_

* * *

_"On this third planet from this star Sol, you'll be a god among men. They are a flawed race. Rule them with strength my child. That is where your greatness lies."_

* * *

_"I love you. I do, but I feel like I'm holding you back," Logan told her with tears in his eyes. "The world needs you. More than me."_

* * *

_The man in the golden mask grabbed a hold of her hand. "Your fate is utterly blinding. You are of value, Alice Kent. When you show yourself to the world, it will be a different age, a silver age of heroism that will start when they look up into the sky at you with the hope for tomorrow. You will help everyone embrace it."_

* * *

_Bucky was hanging from the train. Steve tried to reach for him, but he fell. . ._

* * *

_"Steve is that you? Are you alright?"_

_"Peggy! Schmidt is dead!"_

_"What about the plane?"_

"_That's a little bit tougher to explain."_

_"Give me your coordinates, I'll find you a safe landing site."_

"_There's not going to be a safe landing, but I can try to force her down."_

_"I'll get Howard on the line. He'll know what to do."_

"_Look. There's not enough time. This thing's moving too fast, and it's heading straight for New York. . .I gotta put her in the water. . ."_

_"Please! Don't do this. We have time. We could work it out."_

_"Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer, a lot of people are going to die. Peggy. . .this is my choice. . .Peggy?"_

_"I'm here."_

_"You're gonna need a rain check on that dance."_

_"Alright. A week next Saturday at the Stork Club."_

_"You got it."_

_"Eight o'clock on the dot. Don't you dare be late. Understand?"_

_"You know, I still don't know how to dance."_

_"Just be there."_

_"We'll have the band play something slow. I'd hate to step on your. . ."_

* * *

_He could feel the water surround him. Ice everywhere. There was no way for him to get out of this._

* * *

_Steve woke up to a baseball game on the radio. Something was not right. He remembered going to that game._

_The nurse tried to calm him down, but he ran out, knocking armed men to the ground. Steve ran out of the actual building. Things were different. People were dressed differently. What was on the buildings? He recognized the New York accents of the people talking, but. . .black cars surrounded him. A one-eyed man in all black walked to him._

_"At ease soldier," he said, calmly. "You've been asleep, Cap, for almost seventy years." _

* * *

Alice walked out of her apartment, being as quiet as possible so as to not wake Darcy. Her dreams, memories, pretty much sucked. She sat in the hallway, back against the wall, willing herself to be tired. She heard a door open in front of her. Steve.

"Trouble sleeping?" She asked him, looking up at him. He was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants. Maybe he was going out for a run?

Steve nodded.

"Join the club?" Alice indicated the floor next to her.

He hesitated a moment, but he did sit next to her. Both of them sat in companionable silence.

"I kinda remember my birth parents," she said, after awhile. Steve looked like he needed to talk. "Kept thinking about them. Kinda."

More silence.

"I served in the war," he finally said. His tone of voice implying more than he was letting on. "I kept thinking about. . .that. Losing friends."

She hummed in understanding. Even more silence.

"Sorry for running off earlier," Alice apologized. "Darcy says I need to work on my people skills."

Steve almost smiled. "It's fine."

He looked at her. Alice's ice-blue eyes were staring off into space, and they were full of sadness and failure. Steve wanted to hear her laughter again. . .that smile. . .

They began to talk. Steve would tell her about what he and Bucky used to do when they were younger, and she would counter with her own stories about having to drag Darcy out of trouble. Alice was laughing, again, and Steve found himself really, really liking that sound.

Alive began to yawn, and her eyes could not stay open. "Better go to sleep. Long day at Stark Tower, tomorrow."

She tried to get to her feet, but she was having issues. Steve grabbed her hand and gently pulled her to her feet.

Both of them did not have nightmares the rest of the night.


	5. Mutterings

Steve had his weekly mandated session with SHIELD psychologist, Dr. Kent Nelson.

"Did you have any nightmares last night, Steve?" Dr. Nelson asked, noting the dark circles under the soldier's eyes.

"Most of the night," Steve answered, shifting in his seat.

"You went to the gym for the rest of the night, didn't you?" Dr. Nelson looked at Steve with a critical eye.

"No, I talked to. . .her name was Alice Kent," Steve answered, uncomfortably. The doctor's eyes flashed in recognition of the name and motioned him to continue. "She's Darcy Lewis's, my neighbor, new roommate. We talked in the hall before I went to the gym."

Dr. Nelson looked at his desk, looking like he was hearing something. He looked thoughtful. "You went back to sleep, after? No nightmares."

Steve nodded. The doctor began to mutter to himself. Something about, "saw this before" and "happening quickly."

"Doctor?" Steve asked, getting a little worried. Clint told him that the doctor was a little eccentric.

"Thinking out loud," Dr. Nelson evaded. "Anything else? No. That's good, good."

At the end of the session, Steve left the distracted doctor who opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a golden mask.

"I know it's been awhile, old friend," the doctor said to it. "But, I need to know something very important."

The mask attacked itself to his head. Dr. Nelson became the retired hero, Dr. Fate.

He began to see flashes and muttering of what was to come.

"A hero needs a hero. . .warm light for all mankind to share. . .darkness rises. . ."

* * *

Steve found Alice in one of the labs talking to Darcy, like they always do during Alice's lunch hour.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Allie," Darcy was saying comfortingly. "You told me yourself, the'd always be proud of you."

"That's not what I meant. After everything's that happened, I don't think I can be who they want me to be."

Darcy wrapped an arm around Alice's shoulders. Steve's serum-enhanced hearing could barely pick up what she said next.

"You will. I can feel it."

* * *

"What is it, Heimdall?" Thor asked the bridge keeper.

"For months now, I have seen it," the man began. "The old symbol of hope that a friend and ally of the All-Father wore on his chest."

Thor knew of what he spoke of. He saw that same symbol during the battle for New York. None of his allies understood it, but he thought it was a trick.

"Impossible," Thor finally remarked. "None of his kind survived their planet's death."

"It would seem that his child is alive and well."


	6. Infatuation

A/N: Here's two because they're short. . .thanks for reading! Please continue . . .

* * *

Steve, somehow, managed to ask Alice to lunch. He stammered and fumbled his way through his question that he was surprise that she even understood what he was asking her. Since it was Alice, who stammered more than Steve, she understood what he was saying perfectly. When she said yes, she smiled at him.

They were at a cafe close to the Tower. Steve would hold her arm, gently, to keep her from falling as they walked.

"Working at Stark Tower must be different," he noted after they ordered.

She laughed. "I can handle it. I grew up in Smallville, Kansas."

Steve looked confused. "I don't see how. . ."

"There was a meteor shower several years ago," Alice clarified, taking a sip of her drink. "Weird stuff happened after that."

Alice's expression darkened for a moment before she gave Steve a half smile.

"I hear there's a betting pool on how long I'll last."

"Given that you've been around for three weeks, and you are still sane, I'm thinking a lot of people are going to lose their money."

"Darcy would win it all."

"No Bruce. His reasoning is if anyone can corral Darcy for years and still function normally in society, she'll stay at the Tower long enough to retire."

Alice laughed. Her ice-blue eyes thawing a little. Steve felt like he wanted to capture this moment in his sketchbook.

Steve liked how she liked him for Steve Rogers and not as Captain America. He did not want to lose her for all the world.

* * *

Alice thought Steve was sweet. He was so polite that she was sure Grandma Kent would love him if she was still around. And, so serious. Darcy always said that he did not know how to laugh, but form the moment they met, Alice made it possible for him to. She decided to make it her life's mission.

She loved that she could get him to laugh. Only her. Stark tried, she saw, but he only earned either a blank look or a glare depending on how crude Stark's jokes or nicknames were. Alice got him laugh, without even trying, much to Stark's chagrin.

One day she saw him in the gym at the Tower. He was punching a bag, and his eyes were closed in concentration. Steve wore sweatpants and a t-shirt that left little to the imagination. She was beginning to see why Darcy loved her job.

"You need something?" He asked.

Steve caught her!

"I was just. . .um," she tried to stammer something that would make sense. Could not.

Steve tried to say something too, but he stumbled over his words more than her.

"Do you two love birds have your own language?" Stark asked, when he heard them.


	7. Weaknesses

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

In Wakanda. . .

The king, T'Chaka, walked back into his palace after spending the day among his people.

"Of course, Master," the wise man intoned. "As Naman I will bring the people to you."

The king entered the room. The speaker was kneeling before a strangely glowing statue. A statue whose presence sent chills down the king's spine.

"Sage One," the king exclaimed. "What is the meaning of all this?"

The wise man stood. His slight appearance hid well his bloodline from beyond the stars.

"I am only doing what my destiny demands," the wise man answered. "I am bringing about a new age for our people."

"That is Naman. She is the one who will do so through her own deeds, not through some twisted deals and bargains."

"I am Naman," the wise man snarled. "The prophecy spoken by my ancestor spoke of one from his bloodline. Me. Not some worthless woman."

"The prophecy said that Naman was of his blood, not bloodline," the king replied, not fazed by the wise man's anger. The king knew the story of Naman well. He knew that the signs were in place for her to show. In fact, he felt that she had appeared if what little news he got his hands on were anything to go by.

"Your wisdom is lacking, your majesty," the wise man mocked. "The time of the Black Panther has come to an end."

The king was ready for the first attack, a single punch that would have snapped his neck. He was able to leap out of the way, but the wise man proved quicker. Another punch landed on the king's head, and this one did snap his neck. T'Chaka, the King of Wakanda and the Black Panther, crumpled to the ground. Dead. The wise man wore an expression of sorrow and spread the news of the king's tragic demise. He blamed the great king's death on his son, T'Chala. The son knew the truth though.

T'Chala saw his father's murder, and he heard everything they talked about. The now-exiled prince knew that he had to find the real Naman to fight the false one. From what his father told him, the symbol of Naman was spotted around the world, but more often than not, it was seen in New York City.

* * *

"Do you two love birds have your own language?"

It was Tony who found them stammering at each other. Of course. Alice only got more uncomfortable when he called them love birds. She tried to take a steadying breath, probably to cuss out Tony. She hung around Darcy for far too long. It did not help things.

"Well, well Spangles," Tony turned to Steve with his trademarked smirk. "About time."

"We were only. . .we were just. . ." Steve tried to say, but he gave up when Tony started to laugh.

"Right. 'Talking.' I've used that one before."

That earned a scowl from Steve who must have read the underlying meaning. Alice tried to look anywhere but at those two.

"Smallville, I'm giving you something that would remind you of home," Tony said when he was done laughing at Steve's expense.

He pulled out a green rock, one of those blasted meteor rocks from that shower several years ago, and he tossed it at her. The stupid rock fell to her feet, but she was not paying attention. She began to sweat, and she could barely stand. Her heartbeat, which quickened, was loud in her ears, and her breathing became labored. She felt lightheaded, and everything around her became a very dark color. Her body could barely hold her weight, and she fell to the ground.

"Allie. . ." Steve's concerned voice was the last thing she remembered before the darkness. . .

Alice woke up in a bare room, and Bruce was next to the bed checking her pulse and breathing.

"She seemed to be improving," Bruce muttered to himself. He noticed she was conscious. "How you feeling?"

Alice felt like she always felt after encountering those green rocks.

"Exhausted," she choked out.

Tony and Steve were talking to each other on the other side of the room, and Steve was holding the green rock. It was close enough for her to feel the familiar exhausting pain. Darcy came into the room, looking both worried and mischievous.

"Can I have that rock? Was gonna show it to Jane."

Darcy grabbed the rock before Steve could say or do anything and left the room. Alice started to feel a little bit better. Felt even more exhausted. Stupid rock. Stupid Tony for even having that stupid rock.

"Allie?" Steve say her struggling to sit up. "What happened?"

"I might have forgotten breakfast," she answered, giving him a weak smile.

Steve seemed to accept her story. It was better that way. The more people who knew the truth. . .too many people were hurt because of her. Far too many. She did not want Steve on that long list as well. Tony narrowed his eyes though, but he did seem a little relieved that she looked okay. Steve gave Tony a hard look.

"I don't see how it was my fault," Tony remarked when he noticed the look.

"She was fine until you showed up," Steve countered.

"Yeah, about that. You two. . .?" He purposefully left it hanging to gauge their reactions. Nothing. They saw through that. "Really? You two are no fun."

"How about we don't argue in front of the patient?" Bruce asked, finally having enough of the Tony and Steve exchanges.

"She's looking better," Tony replied and began to drag the poor man out of the room. "Let's leave them alone. Science awaits."

* * *

"That wasn't from not eating," Steve remarked. "Your veins. . .darker."

Steve choked at the memory, but he tried to brush it aside. She was fine, sitting up in bed and talking to him. Her color was normal, and the veins were invisible. He had nothing to worry, did he?

"I'm allergic to those rocks," she muttered.

Steve shook his head. Maybe. . .maybe not.

"Ignore Tony," Steve said, looking in her ice-blue eyes. "He's. . ."

"I'm head of PR. I get it," Alice replied, flatly. Her voice was sounding stronger.

"I know, but. . .he shouldn't. . ." Steve gave up.

""Steve, he's Tony Stark. Does he ever follow what's right?"

He almost smiled.

Steve watched her color return, and the tired lines around her eyes disappear. She was getting better. When she laughed, it was not a weak gasp, but her own laugh. He let out a relived breath.

Then there was an explosion. One that did not come from the lab. Steve paled. This cannot be good. He heard yelling, and it was getting closer, and he was beginning to wish he had his shield on him. The door burst open, and armed men entered the room. He got between them and Alice.

"Allie, stay behind me," Steve ordered. He could tell that his voice was changing.

Steve fought some of them, but they were too much. He was too worried that the others would go after Alice. From the corner of his eye, he saw Alice stumble out of the bed. One moment she was standing next to it, and the next she was on the other side of the room, their attackers unconscious. Steve's serum-enhanced eyes could barely track her movement.

"I think there's something I need to tell you. . ."

* * *

Loki was stuck in a cell. His punishment for attacking Earth. Oddly enough, he did feel safer there, the threats he received from his former associate was enough to keep him up at night. He failed them, and his life was forfeit to them. Darkness swallowed him, and he was no longer within his cell. Standing over him was the red face of his master, the being he failed. The Mad Titan, Thanos.

"Asgardian," the Mad Titan bellowed. "You have failed me."

Loki smirked, but he knew that the being before him could sense his fear.

"Right now, my followers are gathering around that rock, finding the soul gems for that Infinity Gauntlet," Thanos informed. "But, there seems to be a snag. A creature we long thought dead is running around that rock being a symbol of hope."

Loki heard that rumor in his cell in Asgard.

"I want you to find that being and get rid of it."


	8. Realizations

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

"I can run pretty fast," Alice said. "It kind of has to do with the meteor shower that was focused mainly on Smallville several years ago. Since then some people developed strange mutations. What happened today, I just ran into our attackers."

Steve seemed to accept her story, and Alice felt bad, evading the truth. It was better that way. Too many people were hurt for knowing the full truth about her, and she did not want to add Steve to that casualty list. He led her out of the room, firmly, but gently, holding on to her arm, almost like he was making sure she was still with him.

"Spangles, you didn't leave any for us?" Tony asked. He was in his Iron Man suit. "I thought we were a team."

Steve looked back at Alice like he was asking for her permission to tell Tony. She nodded. There was no way Tony would figure it out.

"Somehow, Allie is able to run fast," Steve said. "She ran into each one."

Tony stared at Alice. "I heard there was weird stuff happening in Smallville. . ." He looked almost thoughtful, but he shook his head. "Keep an eye on this one, Spangles."

* * *

_A few years before. . ._

_Alice was helping her mother emptying their truck by the barn. She could hear her father talking about their plans in the city over the weekend. It was a normal day in Smallville._

_Her eyes began to sting and burn. The pain started off as a burning throb in the back of her eyes which moved on to the front. When the pain increased to the point that she could not handle it, lasers shot from her eyes and hit the side of the barn. Alice clapped her hands to her eyes, hoping that the pain would go away. She could hear her parents running to put out the fire she caused._

_"What is that, Jonathon?" Her mother asked, after she squatted next to Alice, checking to see if she was fine._

_Alice slowly removed her hands and opened her eyes. On the side of the barn there was burnt an "S" inside a shield._

* * *

T'Chala was doing some research, and he was looking through different news articles and grainy videos of a red and blue blur. He needed to find the real Naman. His father always felt that the real Naman came to Earth several years ago in that fateful meteor shower to a small, countryside town deep in Kansas. Based on the extensive research, his father may have been right.

Smallville, Kansas.

Strangeness had ran rampant within that town ever since the meteor shower. People developed strange mutations caused by long-term exposure to the meteor rocks. Some of them even went mad and attacked the town, but there was always someone there to keep the town safe. That same red and blue blur. He came across a picture that gave him pause. It was a picture of the side of a barn, and there was burned the symbol of Naman, an "S" within a shield. Further research showed that the couple who owned the barn had an adopted daughter. A girl they took in not too long after the shower.

Jonathon and Martha Kent.

Daughter: Alice Kent.

* * *

"JARVIS," Tony called out in his lab. "Compare the radiation coming off that green rock to Alice."

A pause for the AI to scan.

"Sir," the AI replied. "Miss Kent has no match for the radiation coming off the rock."

Tony was silent. The girl lied. Maybe. But why?

"Scan her. Maybe it is an actual mutation."

"Sir, Miss Kent does not have human DNA."

"She IS a mutant." Tony looked almost triumphant. He could see why she would lie about that. Being a meteor freak was considered better than an actual mutant.

"Miss Kent's DNA does not match anything of this world, sir," the AI revealed. "Nor does it match Thor's."

Tony, for once in his life, was speechless. What was Alice Kent?

"Her blood has high traces of neural stem cells, and her body can process sunlight."

"Is she some kind of plant?" Tony was thinking to himself.

"No, sir. She is not a plant. Her bio signatures seem to match what the papers call the Blur."

Tony whistled. This was interesting. Very interesting. Who would have thought that some mild-mannered person could be a hero.

"She's good. JARVIS log all the different and known abilities of this Blur."

* * *

"Loki has escaped, father," Thor told Odin. "Heimdall suspects that he went to Midgard."

Odin was silent as the news sunk in. "No. He was taken by his dark master. Midgard's time has entered the twilight, for his master is Thanos, the Mad Titan." At the titan's name, the blood of many hardened Asgardian warriors ran cold. "There is hope, though. Our Kryptonian ally had managed to secret away his only child to Midgard just moments before his planet's death. If she survived. . ."

"Father, all around Midgard, the symbol of her house could be found," Thor remarked. "She has survived."

"Find her, my son, before your brother and his master do."

* * *

Loki walked around Earth, disguised as a human. The realization that he may have been freed from his prison but sent to an even worse enslavement hit him pretty hard. Maybe making a deal with a powerful and slightly unhinged entity and then not succeeding was not a good idea. He had a feeling that once this was all over, if he played by the rules, his life would be forfeit. Perhaps when he first invaded Midgard, his master might not have let him keep the world. There were many things he realized when he was in prison.

Loki knew one thing though. There was only one way to stop his master's plans. He needed to draw out the last Kryptonian. . .if she was still alive. . .she was the one who could defeat the Mad Titan. Whether he liked it or not, he might have to enlist the aide of the Avengers.


	9. Revelations

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

There was a boom of thunder and crash of lightning that announced the return of Thor to Earth. the news he brought with him created a lot of activity at the Tower. More people in suits and emotionless expressions on their faces filled the Tower. This commotion brought a new babysitter for the Avengers. They only knew her as Diana Prince. She had long black hair, and she was tall and slightly muscular. The air about her was so full of authority that many people tired to get out of her way as quickly as possible. The only person she did not really like was Tony Stark. When they were introduced, instead of shaking his hand in greeting, she punched him in the face. She, also, wore strange silver bracelets on her wrists, and at her side was a rope. Of course, Tony being Tony had to comment on that, which earned him another punch.

"How did he escape?" She asked the returning Avenger, during their debriefing meeting.

"His master freed him," Thor answered. "He did not escape."

Thor went on to describe his brother's master, Thanos. At that name, only Diana was bothered. During her childhood with her fellow Amazons, they told scary stories about the Mad Titan. He was one of the few things that caused fear to her great and warrior race.

"There is only one person who can help us protect Midgard," Thor finished. "I do not know her face, but her symbol has been seen."

"The Blur?" Natasha asked. "How can you be so sure?"

"Her symbol is one of hope," Thor said as if that answered the question.

"It has been left wherever people have been saved," Bruce agreed.

"This Blur. . .whoever she may be is in danger," Thor said. "My brother has been freed to get rid of her. We must find her."

* * *

Alice and Jane were watching Darcy closely, and both of them were pretty concerned. Jane's reason was that Darcy hardly ever got sick. The young woman used to always joke that maybe that was her meteor power. Alice remembered certain events that happened to Darcy before she went to her fateful internship in New Mexico, but she tried to ignore them.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Jane's worried frown belied her calming words.

Alice made noncommittal sound. "She can understand you when you talk about your work. That didn't happen before."

"She always could."

Alice almost swore. Maybe she was wrong. Distant screaming met her.

"I'll be back," she mumbled before running out of the Tower.

She discarded her glasses and changed into blue jeans, a blue shirt (with an "S" inside a shield) and a long red coat and ran into the direction of the yelling. The sound came from Time Square where a crowd of people were bunched together with a man in green waving some kind of glowing spear at them.

"Kneel before me!" He ordered the people, zapping a car with his spear. "You were made to be ruled!"

Alice ran to the car and removed the passengers, and she ran them to some place safe. She left behind her, for all to see, her unmistakable calling card. The crowd ignored the man, right then, They stared at the symbol that brought them hope. The thought that their mysterious protector was near by emboldened them to ignore the man.

"I said KNEEL!"

He raised his spear at the crowd, and Alice ran at him, grabbing the spear and punching him. The man fell to the ground and looked around him in confusion. Beside him was that very same symbol. The Avengers appeared, and all were ready to subdue the man in green.

"That is the symbol I spoke of!" The taller blonde said, pointing at the mark with his hammer.

"Not now, Thor," the voice of Tony Stark rebuked. "We're here to take you back to SHIELD. . .where's his glow stick of destiny?" Alice ran at Tony and placed the spear in his hands and ran off to the side. None of them even saw her. "Never mind. I see you've met the Blur."

"I am here for a higher purpose," the man spat.

"Thor told us," another voice belonging to a man wearing a star spangled suit said.

The man looked around him and smirked. He vanished.

* * *

T'Chala saw what transpired in Time Square. His father was right. Naman would be a bearer of light for the world. He saw how the crowd, once they saw Naman's symbol, refuse to bow to the man before them.

Another person did not escape his sight. With the Avengers was a woman with black. Someone his father knew as Diana Prince, for they fought many battles together. She was considered a friend of his father's and of Wakanda. All T'Chala had to do was convince the woman of wonder, and the Avengers would help him.

* * *

Tony called Steve to the lab to show him what he found about Alice.

"What is this about, Tony?" Steve asked.

"You know her running trick? The meteor powers?" Tony asked. "Well, I've found that the 'meteor freaks' would go insane once they got their powers."

"Allie's fine."

"Not a meteor freak." A confused look. "JARVIS matched her with the radiation coming from that rock that Darcy hid away. Most meteor freaks would match that. Alice didn't."

"What do you mean?"

"Her DNA isn't even human." Tony was going to compare hers with normal human DNA but thought better of it. "Her body, strangely, processes sunlight, though. I'm thinking she's a plant."

"Not a plant, sir," the AI responded. "Her DNA is not of this world."

"Why are you telling me this?" Steve asked. Tony could see the anger dripping in his voice.

"Allie might tell you."

There was an explosion from the lab. From the air vents came Clint's voice:

"Loki's at the lab. He's attacking Jane."

* * *

Alice walked back into the lab. She noticed that Darcy was walking around, and she was joking with Bruce, but it seemed halfhearted and forced. The lab assistant looked even paler than before, if that was even possible.

"I'm better than fine, Allie," she told Alice when she was trying to get her to take it easy for a few days. "I haven't felt this good a long time."

"Jane Foster," came a sickly sweet voice. "I promised my brother I would visit you. Which one of you is she?"

Alice made a discreet hand signal behind her back, and Darcy grabbed a hold of both Bruce and Jane. She made sure Jane did not answer the intruder.

"I am," Alice said. Her stuttering voice was gone, and her acute hearing told her that someone was coming. Not quickly enough.

The man smirked and attacked her. Alice was thrown through the glass and landed hard against the stone wall. He followed her.

"Funny thing," he said. "My brother chose a weak woman, and yet, he's not here to defend her."

Alice laughed. "Maybe I don't need defending."

"Allie!" Steve yelled which surprised her attacker.

"You dare lie to me!"

Alice slowly got to her feet, and sunlight filtered in from the window over her head. The glass fell to the ground, and any injuries she had, they were healed.

"Yes, yes I did."

One punch was all it took to knock the man out. She was too fast for even him, so he had no way to defend himself.

"Allie. . ." Steve said. His concern was gone. Was that anger?

"Steve."

"You lied."

"Yeah, I did," she admitted. "It's safer that way."

Men came and apprehended the attacker, and a taller blonde man came to the lab, demanding to see Jane. He paused when he saw Alice.

"Thank you, Kal-El for keeping Jane from harm."

Alice winced, when she saw Steve's expression. Definitely anger.

"Now might be a good idea to tell the truth," he demanded, when Thor went into the lab.

"No. Too many people were harmed because of the truth."

"I don't see. . ."

"That's it you don't! I am not going to add you to that list, Steve. Like I said, far too many people were harmed because of me."

* * *

The next few days, Steve made a pointed effort to ignore Alice. She lied to him, and then she refused to tell him the truth. He was angry about that but mostly hurt. It was like she did not trust him, and he thought she did. He went to his weekly counselling session with Doctor Nelson. The doctor was in his office, but he wore turquoise and golden robes and a golden mask.

"Doctor?" Steve asked in concern.

"Steven Rogers," the doctors voice had a strange deeper quality to it.

"Dr. Nelson?" Steve walked over to the man. "I can get you help, if Loki did this to you."

"No need, Steven Rogers," the doctor said. "Years ago the Mask of Nebu chose me, and I became Dr. Fate. It allowed me to do and see wondrous things." The doctor laid a hand on Steve's shoulder. "I can see everyone's future but my own. Sometimes it worries me." He removed his hand. "Until I came across Alice Kent a few years ago. Her fate is. . .blinding, and I believe in tomorrow again. Your fate is intertwined with hers, Steven Rogers."

Steve shook his head. This was one of those things that tended to be too much for him.

"You are the one she will need. She is the one you will need. The savior. . .the sentient power. . ."

* * *

Diana Prince found a man dressed as a Black Panther just outside the Tower.

"T'Chaka," she said. "It is good to see you, but. . ."

The Black Panther removed his mask, and the son she heard a little about stared back at her. "That is why I am here."

* * *

The Avengers were gathered together once more. The new handler had with her a stranger, dressed in all black. He explained the situation back in his home country of Wakanda, and he basically told him that he did not need their help with stopping the king killer and would-be world conqueror.

"Then why are you here?" Diana asked him, slightly offended.

"I need this Blur," he answered.

"We don't even know who the Blur is. No one's ever seen her face," Clint replied.

"Actually, JARVIS?" Tony said. "Have you finished comparing the Blur to Alice Kent?"

"I have, sir," the AI responded. "There is a match."

"You don't need me," Alice said, suddenly. She glared at Tony. "You have all the Avengers. They can help you."

"I have asked for you, and only you."

"I work for no one. Ever." Alice tried to leave the room.

"He won't stop. He considers himself a god, and he'll take the whole world. You may not be from here originally, but this is your home," T'Chala said. "Earth should not have the same fate as. . ."

"When do we leave?"


	10. Mercy

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

"We have a legend, a prophecy, about someone from beyond the stars who save the entire world," T'Chala began. "We knew her as Naman the Traveler, and we knew that she would possess great power and strength. You would consider her a god among men." Steve saw Alice grimace. "There is a family where our wise men and women come from who were descended from the same line as her. The current sage believes himself to be Naman and has been making some kind of agreement with the Dark Man." Tony scoffed. "It was the reason of my father's death."

Despite what Doctor Nelson told him, Steve was still angry at Alice. Her lies and refusal to tell the truth were some of the reasons, but now he was told that she was considered a god, and he remembered Loki and what he did when he considered himself a god.

"He only possesses great strength and speed," T'Chala told Alice. "Nothing else."

"I'm not going to kill him," Alice said, practically glaring at him.

"He's very dangerous," Natasha argued from the front of the plane. "It will be the only way to stop him."

"There is always a way." Alice looked almost thoughtful. "Is there anything that this Man From Beyond the Stars left?"

T'Chala nodded. "With us he left a golden rock."

"Good."

The jet landed in a dense jungle. They walked through the jungle, which was no problem, but the closer to the capital city they got, the more they were attacked. They fought the soldiers and the warriors, but they did not know the land as well as their attackers. Alice, though, just stood in front of the bullets, which bounced off her, not even leaving a scratch or bruise. Their attackers noticed that and lowered their weapons. Some tried to kneel in reverence to her, but she quickly told them not to. It went like that with each attack, until word spread of their arrival.

A man in a white robe approached them. Like Alice his eyes were piercingly bright, and he wore the same symbol she had a habit of burning around New York and beyond. The man was the wise man, so it would make sense that he would come alone.

"Black Panther," he spat. "You'll die just like your father!"

The man went to attack the Panther, but Alice was there to knock him away. She blocked each punch of his and threw in a couple of her own.

"Steve! Go to the wise woman's house! Get the gold rock!" She yelled. "Then follow my lead, okay?"

Steve ran into the city, and an old woman met him. By her appearance, she looked like she was related to the man that Alice was fighting. She looked at Steve and then at Alice, but she did hand him the golden rock.

"My great-great-grandfather was her ancestor," she said. "He left his wife this to help her." The rock shone in the sunlight. "We may have stories about Naman, but they are only that. Stories. They could never compare with who she really is. We make her out to be a god, but we do have good reason for that."

Two blurs were fighting, now, and even Steve had troubles following which was which. One blur did get the better of the other, and the wise man laid on the ground at Alice's feet. Steve ran to her, trying to give her the rock. Alice flinched away from him.

"Be careful with that! Give it to him," she said, gesturing to the groaning man at her feet.

Steve gave the man the golden rock, and light surrounded his hands, which spread around his body. The man began to cry out in pain, and then just as quickly the light was gone. He was lying on the ground, holding the golden rock, but he was very much alive.

"It takes away the powers. Permanently," Alice muttered. "There is always a way."

The man looked at her, not in fear or anger, but in awe. He tossed the rock to the side and got to his knees.

"You have shown me mercy," the man said, resting his head on the ground. "You are Naman. I will live out the rest of my life to prove your mercy just."

* * *

T'Chala lead them through the painted caves. It told of Naman the Traveler, and one other person. It possessed a shield that had a star on it, and he and Naman fought side by side. His shield looked suspiciously like Steve's, and from what T'Chala told them, he would be the one to always help Naman.

* * *

There was news of Darcy's disappearance back at the Tower. Bruce told them that one moment she was fine and the next gone. No trace. Only Alice truly understood what might have happened, but she refused to think about it. It was not possible.

"She'll be fine," Steve tried to comfort her, but she scoffed.

"That's what happens to the people around me. They get hurt. Always."

"She'll be fine. . ."

"No, she isn't."

"You think it has to do with her knowing about you?" Steve demanded.

"It always has, Steve," she answered. "Look at me. I'll be the greatest weapon anyone could have. People have tried to do that."

"Because of Naman?" Steve asked, trying to draw the truth out of her.

"Stop calling me that." She sighed. "I'm not from around here." She winced. "Krypton. It was destroyed, though, and they managed to send me here. I landed in a field outside of Smallville during that meteor shower. That was where I found my mom and dad." She looked away from him. "I've told you the truth, and sometime soon, someone will be after you about me. It always happens."


	11. Legion

A/N: Please read and review! got parts from Smallville season 8 episode "legion" because it totally fits with how I see Alice!

* * *

They were back at the Tower, and it looked like a fight broke out when they were gone.

"I'm still not sure how it all happened," Bruce told Tony, looking at the damage. "I'm pretty sure the Other Guy made an appearance."

Alice felt terrible. She should have been there to save Darcy. Closing her eyes in pain, she noticed that Steve was looking at a box of Darcy's.

"I think it's yours," he said.

Behind him a flash of purple light appeared, and a man wearing a metal mask and wielding an ax appeared. He noticed Steve and raised the ax, but Alice got in the way. The ax landed in her side, actually leaving blood. The stranger went to the box and destroyed it.

"What the hell?" Alice yelled at the attacker, and he turned to her.

Before the other Avengers could even move, the attacker swung his ax at Alice's head, but it flew from his hands.

"I'll take that," a new voice said. It belonged to a man in black with three metal circles on his chest, and he was holding the ax.

The attacker began clutching at his head in pain, as a young woman in red appeared. She placed three fingers to her temple. A young man in blue appeared from behind her, walking at the attacker.

"This might be ticklish," he said, and lightning was shot from his fingertips.

The attacker flew back against the wall, knock out. The first person went over to him and removed a ring.

"Have a nice trip home, you hack," he said as the man disappeared.

Alice stumbled over to them, but Steve tried to stop her. Her side was bleeding terribly.

"Who are you? What's going on?" She demanded.

"Kal-El, it's an absolute honor and a privilege," the first one said, smiling a little.

"How do you know that name?" Alice asked.

"We are the Legion," the woman in red answered.

"We've come from the 31st century," the first one finished.

"Hey, Kal, where's your cape?" The man in blue asked, gesturing to his shoulders.

Alice looked at him in confusion. "Cape? What cape?"

Steve came back with a towel for her side.

"That ax can split an atom," the woman in red said, noticing Steve's worried expression. "You'll heal just not a quickly as you'd expect."

"She's going to be fine, Imra. We need to go. We shouldn't be attracting attention," the first one said to the woman in red.

"Well, it's a little late for that isn't it?" Steve asked. "You say you're from the 31st century, why should we believe you?"

The man in blue was looking around the Tower, but he looked at Alice.

"Because we know everything about you," he said to Alice. "You may be known as Alice Kent now, but some day you'll be known as Sup -"

"Garth! It doesn't matter if you believe us or not," the first man said, leading Garth away from them. "The less you know the better."

"There's one thing we can tell you," Imra said. "We're your friends."

"We're also leaving. . .Now!" the first man said, looking around him. "Garth!"

"No way!" Garth said, holding Steve's shield. "I remember when I first saw this!"

"Put that back!" the first one ordered, striding over to Garth.

"Get the magnet out of your ass, Rokk," Garth replied. "This is so. . .surreal."

"You know the code. Don't touch anything!"

Rokk grabbed Garth, making him set down the shield.

"Why are you here?" Steve asked.

"We were here to save Alice," Rokk answered. "Now that she's okay, we're heading straight back."

"Not before you tell us who that ax-wielding psycho was," Alice demanded.

"It's against Legion code."

"I don't care about your code, or your Legion," Alice exclaimed. "This is the second attack at this Tower. My best friend's missing, and I need to find her." The three looked at her, serious for once. "If you know anything, tell me."

"The guy with the ax," Rokk started almost hesitantly. "He goes by the name Persuader. He's part of the human supremacist movement."

"A group of xenophobes who'd rather die than live in peace with aliens," Garth said. "And they all pretty much hate you."

Everyone in the Tower looked at Alice in shock. What did she do?

"He stole one of our Legion rings," Rokk continued, holding his up. "And he broke into the Time Institute to come after you."

"What does a 31st century terrorist want with me?" Alice asked.

Rokk looked like he did not know what to say. "Kal-El. . .your influence reaches far beyond Earth. It's because of you the people of Earth learned to accept alien immigrants with open arms."

"What do you know about aliens?" Alice asked.

"Kal, I may have the smoldering good looks of a human, but I'm actually from a hunk of mud called Wynath. Rokk and Imra are from different planets, too."

"We've come together from across the universe to form the Legion to help others as you do. Without you none of that would have happened," Imra said through everyone's minds. "And now it's time for us to say goodbye."

Rokk was looking at the destroyed box with concern. "Wait." He held up an orange crystal fragment. We're not going anywhere. This is the Phantom Zone crystal." Everyone looked at it, and some were not sure what that meant. "I know my history. This was supposed to be used to extract Brainniac from whoever he possessed."

"The Persuader didn't come back to kill Kal-El," Imra said, realizing what that meant. "He came back to make sure Brainniac survives."

"Brainnic's gone," Alice argued. "He's been destroyed."

Rokk was staring intently at the crystal. "No. No he hasn't, Kal. Not yet."

"You're mistaken." Alice would still not believe him.

"This is established history," Rokk challenged.

"You know, I failed history, and even I know what happens tomorrow," Garth told Alice.

"History told me that Capsicle, here, died in World War II," Tony remarked, gesturing to Steve. The three ignored him.

Alice, though, seemed pretty bothered by their news.

"Without that crystal, you can't stop Brainniac," Rokk said. "There will be no place for us to get back to."

Alice removed the towel from her side. It stopped bleeding, and it was healed.

"You'll have to kill the human host," Rokk said. "It's the only way to stop Brainniac."

"There has to be another way," Alice mumbled. She began playing with her hair in thought, and she looked worried.

Imra looked at her in confusion. "Who's Darcy Lewis?"

"She's a lab assistant, here," Tony could be heard. "And Alice's friend."

"We've heard of all of you, but not of Darcy Lewis," Rokk commented, looking at Alice.

"I guess you don't know me as well as you think."

"Her name was probably lost to the annals of history," Imra suggested.

"What she means is we don't know about Darcy Lewis because she doesn't survive," Garth said, looking serious.

Alice walked over to the boy, but Bruce beat her to him.

"Darcy lives," Bruce said, way too calmly. "Got it."

"I'll find a way to help her, Bruce," Alice promised. "Alone."

Alice was about to run out of the Tower, and Garth stopped her.

"What's with the ground transpo? We've had this conversation in the sky."

"I can't fly."

Garth looked shocked. "Rokk, what's up with that?"

"She obviously hasn't learned yet," Rokk answered.

Alice scowled and vanished.

"Where'd she go?" Tony asked.

"North. The Fortress," Rokk answered.

Imra walked over to Steve.

"I've read about you," she told him quietly. "You're one of the reasons she will become a hero."

"Captain America," Steve countered. Everyone thought he was a hero, but he was just doing what had to be done. It was his job.

"No, Steve Rogers," Imra said.

"Are you sure that this Garth isn't related to Coulson?" Tony asked Clint. "The electricity. . .fanboy. . ."

"Stark, he's an alien."

"So, he _is_ related to Coulson."

"She'll listen to you," Imra continued. "You have to convince her to kill Darcy to stop Brainniac."

Steve narrowed his eyes. "I would never tell her to do that."

"You understand sacrifice better than anyone." Steve winced. He did. "It's the only way."

* * *

"Darcy!" Alice yelled, seeing her at the Fortress.

The young woman looked sickly pale and was sweating, and her eyes were silver and black.

"Kal-El," she said in a harsh voice. "So good to see you again." She moved closer to Alice. "I've planned ahead this time. I knew you wouldn't harm this human." Darcy laughed. "Or maybe you will?"

Alice clenched her fists, but she could not bring herself to give the killing blow.

"I figured as much," Darcy laughed, knocking Alice out. "Weak."

* * *

The three Legion heroes watched the Avengers scramble, finding ways to look for Darcy or to help her once she was found. In the end, they were arguing with each other.

"I never thought that this is how they act," Rokk muttered.

"Remember when you told us to act more like them?" Garth smirked. "We were."

"Garth," Rokk sighed. "They're still at the beginning."

"I want to know what we're facing," Tony demanded of them. "And Alice isn't here. . ."

"Stark," Steve warned. "She's helping in her own way. Whatever it is."

"Brainniac, the Brain Interactive Construct, was a living computer designed on Krypton," Rokk answered. "It was designed to store their knowledge. When Krypton was dying, it downloaded all the information about Krypton, not bothering to save its people, thinking the information was enough."

"It's why Kal. . .Alice is the last Kryptonian," Imra finished. "Her parents sent her here to keep her safe."

"Now Brainniac is going from world to world getting all the information from them before destroying them."

"So we. . ." Steve tried to say.

"Kal-El has it," Rokk said, looking not too sure.

Imra watched the people on the streets. "These humans, we have to save them. Without their incredible spirit, Kal will never become the hero she is."

"I don't think she's the same person," Garth remarked.

"She is," Rokk replied.

"Really? All we know about her only comes from data files. "So far she's more legend than Legion." He lowers his voice. "If we're going to have a world to get back to, we'll have to kill Darcy Lewis ourselves."

Darcy came into the Tower, and all the machines began to change. Tony clutched at his chest and doubled over in pain. Then, everyone within the Tower froze in place, and slowly, everyone else in the streets below followed them.

Imra mentally attacked Darcy, but her mental attack was hit back at her. She fell to the ground and clutched at her head.

"You're sadism is historic where I come from," she told Darcy. "As is your defeat."

"Looks like history's about to get a rewrite." Darcy smirked.

The other two Legion heroes used their abilities on Darcy, knocking her out. She fell to the ground. Garth stood over Darcy with a knife in his hands. His hands were shaking.

"I'll do it, Garth," Rokk said, holding his hand out for the knife.

"No, I can do this," Garth said. "When I joined the Legion, I made a promise to do whatever it takes. I intend to honor it. . .for once."

He could not make the killing blow and lowered his hand. Rokk took the knife, but Alice appeared and a had a strangle hold on his hand.

"Leave her along!" she ordered, far too calmly. "What did you do to her?"

"We powered her down to stop Brainniac," Rokk answered.

"What about them?" Alice demanded, nodding her head at the frozen people. "You power them down too?"

"No, Brainniac can take credit for that," Garth answered.

"You speak of a code," Alice remembered. "What about preserving life?"

Imra was looking at Darcy with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Darcy," she said. "She's alive."

Rokk looked shaken and pained at what he was about to do.

"We'll work together," Alice took charge. "All of us. I want to try to connect with Darcy." She sat next to Darcy's head. "Imra can you do that?"

"I'll try," she said, resting her hands on Darcy's head.

Alice looked at the other two.

"Between the two of you, I think we can neutralize Brainniac."

"An electromagnetic blast only lasts so long," Garth countered.

"He's a computer," Alice said. "The microscopic parts he's made of are probably made of metal. Right?"

"I've never focused my powers like this before," Rokk agreed. "I can probably extract the nanites."

"I could short circuit him with a static attack," Garth said. He smiled. "Get ready for a techno-exorcism."

"I got her," Imra said, reaching for Alice's hand. "Kal, she's asking for you."

"Darcy," Alice said. "Darce, I'm here. We're gonna try to get rid of Brainniac. Just hang on."

Darcy started to seize.

"Brainniac's fighting," Imra said. "He's coming back online."

"Rokk, now!" Alice ordered.

Darcy sat up, but Garth and Rokk used their powers on her, small particles of metal rose from Darcy's mouth as she seized harder.

"Darce, hang in there!" Alice whispered.

Rokk closed his eyes in concentration, and the metal formed a large ball. A flash of blue light, and Darcy stopped shaking. Slowly, everyone began to unfreeze. Garth lowered his arms in exhaustion, and Rokk held the metal ball at which he glared.

"Darce," Alice said. "Imra can you hear anything? Darce. . ."

"I'm getting something. . ."

Darcy opened her eyes.

"Darcy, you okay?"

"I'm fine. I definitely feel a whole lot dumber."

* * *

A man-like being in all green was hurtling through space. He was bleeding, terribly, and he knew he was dying.

"Choose wisely, old friend," he took off the glowing green ring.

The ring pulsed once and flew off without him, leaving him to die. It came past a small blue world, and the light grew stronger. The ring had chosen its successor.

At that same moment, a pilot was driving back home, when he was the green light fall from the sky. Something inside him compelled him to follow the light. It was not too hard for him to find the ring. The ring glowed green and at it's center was a symbol of a lantern.

"What is your name?" a voice inside his mind asked.

"Hal Jordan."

"I was the ring of the late Green Lantern Abin Sur," it replied. "I chose you because you will make a great Green Lantern. It is the highest of honors and the greatest of responsibilities." It floated to his hand, and more green light formed a green lantern at his feet. Hal place the ring in front of the lantern and said the words that went through his mind:

"In brightest day, and in blackest night,  
No evil shall escape my sight.  
Let all those who worship evil's might,  
Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"

* * *

"So, Darce," Alice smiled. "You and Banner?"

"What?"

"He was flipping out when you were gone."

"Yeah," Darcy admitted. "Allie, promise me something."

"I'm sure Stark knows."

"Not that." Darcy shook her head. "Next time, do what's right for the world, and not for me."

"I can't do that," Alice snapped. "I don't have that right. . ."

"If it saves the world. . .do it."

Alice walked away, shaking her head. She walked right into Steve.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"What happened to Darcy," Steve said. "You blame yourself." It was not a question.

"Yes. Like I said, I'm dangerous to be around." She noticed the three people talking to Bruce and Darcy. "Brainniac knew I couldn't kill her."

"Stark showed me what happened at Smallville," Steve continued. "You blame yourself for them too."

"I couldn't save them all," she muttered. "You know it's weird. Hearing what I'm supposed to do. . .the great hero I'll become. I'll be renowned from across the galaxy."

"You don't think you'll measure up," Steve finished for her. "You'll do it on your own schedule." He looked at her, wanting to see her smile again. "You did good."

"I was raised by people who did not just teach me how to use my abilities," Alice said. "They didn't."

"They have a great role model."

Alice smiled at Steve and hugged him. "Thanks."

Steve could not help but think about what Imra told him:

_"We were ready to go the easy way out to stop Brainniac, but she stopped us. Alice brings out the best in people. You are lucky to have her."_

_"You are the one she will need. She is the one you will need. . .the savior. . .the sentient power. . ."_

* * *

"It's time to go," Imra said, holding the metal sphere.

"Are you sure you want to take that with you?" Alice asked.

"I'm sure we can reprogram what's left of Brainniac into something useful," Rokk answered.

"Let's hope that Brainniac-5 would be a little more friendly."

"I'm sorry I doubted you, Kal," Rokk apologized. "You did stop Brainniac and without taking a life."

"There's always a way, Rokk," Alice said, accepting his apology. "If there ever seems like there isn't, just remember what we did here today."

"Preserve all life at all costs," Rokk said. "That will be the number one rule in Legion code from now on." Rokk shook hands with Alice. "It truly was an honor." He gave Alice one of the Legion rings. "And, if you ever want to meet the rest of the Legion, I've reprogrammed it for time travel only. No flights, not yet."

"Looks like you have to learn how to fly without training wheels," Garth joked. Alice smiled at him.

"Thanks, but I think I'll stick to my timezone for awhile."

"We hope to see you again," Imra said, hugging Alice.

Rokk looked serious. "Kal, be careful in the days ahead."

He and the two others faced each other and raise their arms over their heads. Rokk yelled: "Long live the Legion." In a flash of purple light, they were gone.

* * *

An astroid fell to Earth, and it landed in the middle of nowhere. Out of the smoldering debris, a man wearing some kind of green uniform with a golden lightning bolt down his chest appeared.

"No one can keep me from here forever." The man smirked.

At that same moment, an ancient man, known by many as the wizard Shazam, felt pain and dread.

"Black Adam has returned," he rasped to his faithful servant. "Find the Chosen One and bring him to me."


	12. Stronger

A/N: Please read and review! From Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam. Still a part of how I see Alice.

* * *

"Where are you going?" Darcy asked Alice as she left the apartment building with Steve.

"A new story," Alice answered. "I'm writing about a young boy's odyssey through the terrible foster care system."

"Not front page news worthy, you know that right?" Darcy remarked. "Unless Spider-Man's taking the day off."

"Ha. Ha."

* * *

A young boy, of about ten years old and named Billy Batson, was on his way to a meeting. A freelance writer, Alice Kent, promised to write a story about him, showing the world his (and others kids) plight. Billy was orphaned at a younger age and was shuffled around from one horrible foster home to the next, and he decided that living on the streets, hungry most the time, was a far better alternative. He already had one meeting with Ms. Kent, the day before, and he thought she was not like the other adults he had encountered. She was actually concerned for him, and that was something he had not dealt with since he was much younger.

"You would really rob a penniless bum?" a deep voice demanded from an alley.

"How d'you expect us to buy beer with this much money?" a teen's voice snarked.

Billy walked into the alley to find three teenagers robbing a homeless man.

"Stop it!" he yelled at them. "Leave him alone!"

"Or you'll do what?" the leader of the group asked, walking over to him.

Billy was much younger and smaller than the leader of the group, and when the leader went to punch Billy, he flinched. The leader smirked and smacked him across the face, pretty much knocking him to the ground. The teens left the alley, laughing at their two victims.

The homeless man helped Billy to his feet. "Sorry, Captain. The last thing I wanted was for you to get your ass whupped on my account."

"Just trying to do what's right, sir."

"And that's why you're the Captain, man. You know, everybody nowadays is looking for change. Just wanted it to come from someone else, huh?" the homeless man agreed. "You know speaking of. . .um. . .I hate to ask but. . .um. . ." He held out his hand to Billy expectantly.

Billy handed him a small coin. "Only have a subway token."

"That's enough for me!" The man took the coin and began to walk away. "You know the next time you see me, Captain, I might hit you back with some change."

billy come to a small cafe near Stark Tower. He found Ms. Kent sitting at a table next to a tall blonde man, and they apparently ordered a lot of food. Billy came to the table with his eyes wide.

"That all for me, Ms. Kent?" he asked her.

"Since you had two breakfasts yesterday," she said, smiling. "I thought I should order you three, today."

He tore into the food. Ms. Kent was looking at him, when she said:

"What's that on your face?"

Billy touched the bruise on his cheek. "It's what you get for doing good."

"Why didn't you run away?" the blonde man asked.

"That's rich, coming from you, Steve," Ms. Kent said.

"Should've kept my mouth shut, earlier," Billy muttered. He started to play with his eggs. "Be good and good will follow. That's what my parents always told me. After all I've been through, I'm starting to think being good isn't good for me."

Ms. Kent rested a hand on his. "It seems that way sometimes, doesn't it? Good is hard, and bad is easy."

Around them things blew back, and all three of them were knocked to the ground.

"I was not expecting a child," a strange man was floating in front of Billy. "But you are marked by the Wizard's energy. You are chosen to one day inherit the mantle of power."

Billy stared at the man before him in fear. "I. . .I don't understand. What do you want from me?"

The man reached down to grab the front of Billy's shirt. "Your life."

"Stay away from him!" Both of them turned to see Ms. Kent scramble to her feet.

The stranger dropped Billy to the ground and threw Ms. Kent at a wall. Steve grabbed Billy's arm, and they both ran. The man had a red, white, and blue shield that he used to protect them from the lightning that their attacker was directing at them. At one point their attacker picked up a car and threw it at the both of them. It did not hit them, though, because there stood a young woman in red and blue holding the car like it was nothing. She gently set it to the ground, helping its passengers.

"The Blur!" Billy yelled in awe.

"Stick with him," she told Billy nodding to Steve. "Stay here." She faced the stranger.

"You fight for the wizard?" the stranger asked.

"I fight for those who can't fight for themselves."

The two started fighting, and the stranger was surprised that she could match him in strength and speed. A couple well timed punches had the stranger on the ground. He smirked, though, and shot lightning right at her. The Blur crumpled to the ground in pain.

"We need to get you out of here," Steve said to Billy, pulling him behind him and his shield when the lightning was shot at them.

They ran, again. Billy was in front, and Steve followed closely behind, always using his shield to stop the lightning. They ran to the entrance of a subway. The homeless man tossed Billy a token.

"Captain, I did promise I would hit you back some change, didn't I?" He yelled as both Billy and Steve ran into the subway.

"Why is he after me?" Billy asked, as they entered the strangely empty subway.

"I was going to ask you the same question," Steve replied.

Near them the stranger was thrown into the tunnel by the Blur. He shot more lightning at her, making her double over in pain.

"Indeed, you are my physical match, but I sense one critical different," the stranger said with a smirk. "A vulnerability to magic."

He zapped more lightning at her, and the Blur crumpled to the ground, writhing in pain. She raised her head, and red light knocked the stranger to the ground.

"Another difference," she told him. "Heat vision."

Billy saw the stranger crumpled on the ground, and he ran to the Blur, despite Steve holding him back.

"You did it! You beat him!"

"Go!" she rasped. She was holding her side.

Steve grabbed Billy's arm, and they ran through the subway system. The stranger was close behind them. Billy, desperate to get away, leaped to the subway tracks, and he continued running.

"Wait. . .no!" He heard Steve yell as the lights of a subway train approached.

The train was coming right at him, and there was nowhere for him to go. He closed his eyes and braced himself. . .

Instead of the train hitting him, Billy was actually inside the train. Safe for the moment. Oddly enough, no one else was on the train with him. The coin in his pocket began to glow a bright blue color, and that light began to move around the subway car. Around him there were scenes from his childhood: his parents' funeral, the foster homes, the streets. The train slammed to a stop, knocking Billy off his feet, and the doors opened to a dark cave-like tunnel. Billy stepped out of the train, looking at seven tall statues that were called the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. He was not paying attention to the train leaving.

"I was hoping this moment would come until you were a bit older," an old voice said from the other end of the tunnel. "Alas, the threat is upon us now, Billy Batson."

"You. . .know my name?" Billy asked.

"I know many things, for I am the Wizard Shazam!" Lightning flew from his finger tips, causing the tunnel to shake. "Worry not. Black Adam cannot sense you here."

"Who's Black Adam?" Billy asked.

"My greatest mistake,' the Wizard answered, vanishing in a puff of smoke only to reappear behind him. "One for which today I will pay my penance." He looked at the seven statues. "Many era ago, I chose him to be this world's protector. He was entrusted with great powers, but he fell victim to the same seven deadly enemies of man that all must battle. I was forced to banish him to the farthest star in the sky. I spent the next five thousand years making sure I would not repeat that error." He looked at Billy. "I chose a new hero."

"Who?"

"Why you, of course. I've been watching you for some time, Billy and now bestowed the wisdom, strength, stamina, power, courage, and speed of the gods. You will become our new protector. You will become Captain Marvel."

"But. . .I'm no protector."

"No protector, you say?" the Wizard rested a hand on Billy's shoulder. "And yet despite enduring countless tragedies and hardships, you somehow managed to protect your perfect heart. You, Billy Batson, are all that stands in the way of Black Adam again unleashing tyranny upon us."

"I can't."

"You must." The Wizard raised his hands, and lightning began to make the tunnel crumble. "There. It is done."

"We've got to get out of here!"

"In your times of need," the Wizard made no move as the tunnel collapsed around them. "Simply call on me, but this is my destiny. Go now. Live yours."

Blue light surrounded Billy, and he was spirited away as the tunnel collapsed completely. He was back on the streets, seeing the continuation of the fight between Black Adam and the Blur. She ended up on the ground, struggling to get to her feet. Black Adam grabbed her and was going to deliver a crippling blow to her.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Billy yelled.

Black Adam dropped the Blur and turned to the boy.

"What am I doing?" Billy muttered to himself. Steve ran to the Blur.

"You are alive," Black Adam said. "An impressive trick."

"Not as impressive as this one!" Billy yelled and ran to punch Black Adam. He had no affect on the man.

"Amusing," Black Adam said. "The Wizard finally gave you your powers, but he neglected to show you how they worked."

"Blur?" Billy said, slowly backing away. "Anyone? Need a little help here Shazam!"

One blue single bold of lightning hit Billy, and he could feel himself to transform. He was taller, stronger, and faster. He even looked far older. His uniform was the same as Black Adam's, only his was red where the other's was green, and he had a white and gold cape. Billy became Captain Marvel.

They fought, and Marvel matched Black Adam punch for punch, almost bettering him. That did not go unnoticed by Black Adam. He grabbed a random passerby and held her by neck up in the air.

"This is who I am to protect?" he asked Captain Marvel. "Why? Because they are weak?"

"Put her down," Captain Marvel ordered.

"When you crush an ant beneath your foot, do you feel remorse?" Black Adam continued, still holding her. "No. Is this because you are evil? Or because you recognize yourself as a higher form of life. This is what the Wizard could not understand. If I have the powers of the gods, the am I not a god myself? Should I not be treated as such?"

"Put. Her. Down."

"You want to be a protector Then protect this soul. Revert to your mortal form, and I will prove a benevolent deity."

"And, I'll be the only one who dies."

"You will."

"Shazam." Billy became his normal self. "Now, put her down."

"See, like an ant," Black Adam smirked and tossed the woman into the air.

"NO! Sh-"

"Your last breath wasted on the wrong word!"

A red light knocked him to the ground, knocking them both to the ground. The Blur was walking towards them, holding the woman in her arms. She set the woman on the ground, who ran off. Both the Blur and Black Adam fought again.

"No more," Billy was saying to himself. "No more being weak. No more! Shazam!"

He attacked Black Adam and defeated him. Billy had him by the neck, just like the woman, and he was ready to finish it.

"Easy there," the Blur said, coming next to Billy. "You've got him."

"It changes you, does it not?" Black Adam said. "The power."

"It only changes that I can choose my own fate, now."

"Like a god maybe."

"That's enough!" the Blur interrupted them.

"No. I have to," Billy said, clenching his fist. "To protect them!"

"How?" she asked him. "By being like him?"

"No! By being stronger than him!"

"Then be strong. Be good."

Billy dropped Black Adam to the ground.

"This is not over," Black Adam said. "Only death can stop me."

"You're forgetting option number two," the voice of the homeless man said. It bothered Black Adam. "Banishment. I'll take it from here, Captain."

"Tawny!" Black Adam spat.

"You know the homeless guy?" Billy asked.

"Still the Wizard's lackey, I see."

The homeless man turned into a tiger. "Lackey. Kid's guardian angel. Super-hero talent scout," the tiger said. "Guess I do a bit of everything. So, I was thinking this time the Wizard could send you so far across the universe, it will take you ten thousand years to come back."

"No! Not again! Shazam!"

A single bolt of blue lightning hit Black Adam, and he immediately turned into dust. Black Adam was defeated.

"Aged five thousand years in a single moment," the tiger commented. "Harsh."

"I thought the Wizard was. . " Billy asked.

"As a doornail. Nice work out there, Captain. See you around." The tiger left Billy and the Blur.

"You have unusual friends," the Blur told Billy.

* * *

_"She brings out the best in us." _

Steve remembered what Imra told him about Alice, and she was right. The Captain was going to kill their attacker, but with a few encouraging words, Alice was able to stop him from doing so. He found her just outside her apartment.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I think I left my keys back at the Tower," she stuttered. "Darcy's busy."

"We could talk."

"We could."

They sat in the hallway, talking. Maybe he did forgive her for keeping quiet about her true origins, and maybe she did want to open up to him a bit more. Either way, she sat closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He went on about how he still felt bad for not going after Bucky, and she would always tell him that no matter what she did, she felt like she was not good enough, that she could not save everybody. They had more in common than they wanted to admit.

* * *

A man-like being, known as Amon Sur, learned of his father's death. For days he expected the ring, his birth rite, to appear, but he learned that his father sent it off to some small world to be taken by some weak human. Amon Sur formed a plan that would allow him to claim his inheritance.

* * *

"Why are you here?" Thor asked his brother.

"To find that Kryptonian, as you know." Loki smirked. "Messing with you was more for fun."

It took all the self control that Thor possessed to not attack his brother.

"Father believes you plan to kill her."

"Oh the thought has crossed my mind," Loki answered, looking as serious as he could possibly get. "No. I need her help."

"She will not be your puppet."

"Puppet? She is more her father's puppet." Loki laughed. "Never make a deal with someone incredibly powerful and then fall through on your end of the bargain. It won't end well."


	13. Chosen

A/N: Please read and review!

Question: What hero should Allie inspire next?

* * *

He came back to Earth with his training done. There was always something in the back of Hal's mind that maybe he was not right to be the Green Lantern. His teacher told him that it came with showing no fear, but Hal knew that deep down, he could feel fear. He was human.

He also learned that the ring could create anything his mind willed it to. The greatest power in the universe practically in the palm of his hand. No one had that right to possess it. That amount of power could corrupt anyone, no matter how virtuous they may seem to be.

Hal stared at the ring. Self doubt began to cloud his mind.

"Second thoughts?" he heard a voice behind him ask.

"What?"

The voice belonged to a strange looking man, if you could call him that. He was taller than the tallest person Hal knew, and the man had purple skin.

"My father was a Green Lantern, until very recently," the man said, companionably. "Always called it a responsibility."

"So I've been told," Hal mumbled.

"They do drill that into you, don't they?" The man chuckled almost darkly. "There are some things, though, they don't tell you. How much power you actually do possess." He glared at the ring. "You can do anything with that thing, and yet, you're fighting their battles, fixing their problems."

"I'd like to think I'm helping."

The man chuckled. "How can you help when you aren't so sure about yourself?"

* * *

Alice and Steve were always seen talking to each other. They were slowly getting over the mild distrust over kept secrets because Alice, rather bravely and reluctantly, told Steve everything about her. She was technically an alien, the last of her kind, and her abilities came from the sun. The green rock that Darcy had hidden was one of the few things in the world that could kill her.

Things began to change during a charity event that Pepper planned. One of the guests was the instigator: Lex Luthor. When he saw her, he stopped what he was doing. He spoke to the person next to him, and his eyes never once stopped looking at Alice.

She recognized that look from her childhood in Smallville. The both of them were friends, but when he found out her true nature, he either wanted her dead or her to work with him to control everything. Their friendship did not last long after that which was one of the many things in her life that she truly regretted.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked her, when she was trying to hurry away from the crowd.

"Noth - an old friend's here," Alice finally decided to say to him. She tried to ignore the concern he had for her. It would never end well for him. Luthor was talking to Tony and Pepper, and his companion was noticeably missing.

The familiar exhausting feeling appeared, and she knew who Luthor dragged with him: John Corben. He was a man with the misfortune of needing Luthor's help, once a couple years ago. The poor man suffered through a terrible accident which almost caused his death. Luthor managed to find a way to save the man through the means of a metallic skeleton and a kryptonite heart. Corben, as Metallo, would do Luthor's work, rather willingly one could add, and he developed an intense hatred of Alice.

The pain increased, and she began to sweat. Steve looked at her with worry, and he scanned the area looking for the cause of her apparent distress.

"Allie," he whispered to her, trying to keep her from collapsing.

Alice tried to tell him, but her words were stuck in the back of her throat. She could not choke out a warning.

Steve was kicked to the ground, but his training allowed him to quickly scramble to his feet and face his attacker. An oddly smallish man with a glowing green chest sneered at Steve.

"Sorry, but I'm gonna have to cut in," Corben said, trying to grab Alice's arm.

She tried to fight him, but she was getting weaker by the minute. Alice just slumped against Corben, barely staying conscious. He dragged her out of the charity event, and no one could stop him. Too strong. Too fast. And practically invulnerable.

There was a flash of green that protected the onlookers, and a young man in all green landed on the ground. Something on his finger glowed green for a moment, and a green fist knocked Corben to the ground.

"Are you okay?" The stranger knelt next to the still weak Alice.

"Will be," she choked out. "Find a way to cover his chest."

* * *

Hal Jordan came across. . .his ring led him to Tony Stark's charity function. He saw a smallish man practically dragging a semi-conscious young woman, knocking out any who would try to stop him. Despite his doubts about his power, he had to find some way to help.

He created a wall between the crowd and the man. That man smirked at Hal when he saw him, and Hal had to fight one of his own. With his will, he created a fist, and the man fell to the ground, dropping the poor woman.

He knelt next to her. "Are you okay?"

She looked like death, but she managed to choke out: "Will be. Find a way to cover his chest."

Hal looked at the man struggling to his feet. A glowing green chest. His now-ripped shirt showed a large green rock, one of those meteorites from some middle of nowhere town in Kansas.

"This doesn't concern you," the man sneered at Hal.

He smirked. "Everything concerns me. Been told that's a problem of mine."

With a flick of the wrist, the man's arms and legs were chained to the ground.

"Get away," the woman gasped. Hal listened.

Hal watched, in awe, as the woman shot red lasers from her eyes, which melted the metal to cover the green rock. She visibly got better. A blonde man ran over to her, checking to see if she was okay.

"Who are you?" Her voice was stronger.

"I'm Green Lantern," Hal answered, showing off his ring. "Protector of the Universe, that sorta thing."

* * *

Alice was back at her apartment. Steve made a point of having her leave the function early and walking her home, always a protective hand nearby if she so much as stumbled.

"I'm fine," she said to Steve.

"You're still shaking."

"I'm used to it," Alice said. She was. Those stupid rocks were everywhere back in Smallville.

"You never really answered my question earlier."

"I kind of did," she said. "Lex Luthor was a friend, and now we're not. He was the one who sent that man after me, though he would never admit to it."

"It has something to do with who you are," Steve pointed out.

Alice nodded. "For a while he wanted us to work together: my strength mixed with his mind. He thought we'd be unstoppable." She scowled. "I didn't go along with that, and now, he's trying to kill me. I have been ruining all his plans. He's one of the many reasons why it's dangerous to be around me."

"I'm not going anywhere," Steve said. The look in his eyes was tender and earnest.

* * *

Hal Jordan was staring at that ring. It did change his life, and he did thought it was for the better. The ring made the wrong choice when it chose him. That strange man was right. He did not deserve that power.

He removed the ring and placed it in a drawer, never to see the ring again.

* * *

Amon Sur discreetly watched the interloper remove the ring, and his plans were setting into place. Plans that would make him Green Lantern in that forsaken part of the universe.

"You were my father's oldest of friends," he spoke to the man in yellow. "Do this for me, and the memory of my father will not be tarnished by some upstart."

The man in yellow, Sinestro, held up his yellow ring. "Humans are always afraid. I'll exploit that."

* * *

Alice handed in her letter of resignation, shortly thereafter. She told Pepper that she missed being an investigative reporter, but the look Pepper gave her showed that she knew the truth.

"You'll be safer here," Pepper tried to tell her.

"That's the thing, it's not me I'm worried about," she replied. "I'll just stay under the radar. . .or as much as one can for The Daily Bugle."

"Tony is in the public eye," Pepper was saying. "Luthor would not risk. . ."

"He did the other night. Pepper, I'm sorry, but I can't stay."

That day, Darcy won the betting pool. Her reasoning: Something would make Alice wish to leave the Tower within the first few months.

* * *

"What do you know about Green Lantern?" Alice asked the man her birth father trusted to keep an eye on her while she was growing up.

"They are considered to be the protectors of the universe," the man, John Jones, answered.

Like Alice there was more to him than could be observed, and that held true for him more so than Alice. If he kept to his original form, he would have glowing red eyes and green skin. The man was the last Martian.

"That's what he said," she replied. "I just thought it was his ego."

"It might just be his ego." John was thoughtful. "There's talk, though, that he might not be right for it. Irresponsible and given immense power."

"He's not too bad," Alice said, remembering him. "He just needs to grow up a little."

Alice could hear distant yelling, and John (telepathy is a Martian ability) clutched at his head.

"This can't be!" He muttered.

"What?"

"Green Lanterns use their will to create anything," he explained. "This attacker has similar powers, but he's using fear."

They both ran in the direction of the pandemonium. A man in all yellow was attacking the city. Yellow weapons materialized around them. A man in green appeared, and the people thought he would help them (they had heard of the Green Lantern), but he only made things worse.

"That's not. . ."

"No, he isn't. He's someone far worse," John agreed with her.

* * *

Hal never bothered to look for that ring. As far as he was concerned, it was out of his life for good. The night before, he felt that someone might have been in his apartment, digging around his stuff, but it could have just been his paranoia. When he saw his old teacher in all yellow using the power of fear, he entertained the thought of helping, even went so far as to look for his ring. It was gone. When he saw that annoying stranger, he knew where his ring vanished. He ran onto the streets, really with no plan except to get that ring back.

A blonde woman grabbed his arm. She was far stronger than she looked.

"You need to take better care of your universe protecting things," she told him. She was the same woman with the laser eyes.

"I don't deserve that power," Hal told her.

"And apparently he does?"

"His name's Amon Sur," Hal said. "His father was the previous owner of that ring."

"Yet the ring chose you."

"Don't know why. I don't deserve that power. No one deserves that power!"

"That might be why the ring chose you," the woman remarked, fighting a proud smile. "You know enough not to misuse it."

Hal thought. Maybe she was right. He went to face Amon Sur, bravely dodging past his attacks.

"I think there was one thing your father never told you," Hal yelled at the man. "You had to be chosen to carry that ring."

He concentrated, and the ring flew from the man's hand and came to Hal's outstretched one. He put the ring back on, and in a flash of green light, he became the Green Lantern. Hal began to face his former teacher, with a renewed purpose.

* * *

Alice was watching the man in green fighting off the yellow man, when she noticed the purple-colored man staring at her with hatred.

"Kryptonian," he spat at her. "You did this! You stole my birthright!"

He attacked her, but John grabbed the back of his neck.

"I've been looking all over for you, Amon Sur," he told the struggling man. "Your crimes have finally caught up to you." Amon Sur stared at the famed Manhunter in abject horror. "Oh, I won't kill you, but you'll still pay for your crimes. Recently, I've learned that there is always an alternative to killing."

* * *

Steve was waiting in the hallway between their apartments. He may not have been there during the recent attack, but it was all over the news. No one could quite catch what the woman, who made an effort to hide her face, said to the man, but whatever it was, it made him face the two attackers. He could hear her coming down the hallway.

"Hey, Steve."

"Allie," he said. "That's another person you've inspired."

She faltered. "Well, he. . .you. . ." She gave up. "Why do you ask?"

"Someone said that you bring out the best in people," Steve answered. She scowled, and Steve reached out to her. "Lately it has been true."

"Right now, it might be," she scoffed.

"Darcy told Bruce. . ." Steve stumbled. "You are a good person, Allie, and that passes on to other people."

She did not look too convinced, but she did give him a half smile. "I'm glad you think so."

"Why are you so hard on yourself?" Steve asked her, both were sitting on the ground.

"I have all this power, and I can't save everyone," she mumbled. "Kinda defeats the purpose."

Alice, one of the few people he knew who could keep her emotions in check, was starting to struggle holding back her tears. Steve pulled her to him and hugged her, trying to comfort her.

"I've noticed that dwelling too much on the past, is never a good thing." he remembered what Doctor Nelson always told him. "The hero is made in the moment."

"You are the one she will need. . ."

* * *

"This was found," Ted Kord, CEO of Kord Industries and new government contractor, told one of his technicians, Dan Garret. "In the middle of a swamp."

They were looking at a blue, almost beetle-like object on the metal table in front of them. So far, that small object had eluded all their best efforts to figure out how it would work. Ted left Dan to stare at the object, almost willing it to reveal its secrets.

A half hour later, Ted came rushing back after hearing the chaos. Three other technicians were dead, burned to a crisp, and Dan slumped to the ground. Ted ran over to the technician, noticing the blue beetle-like object, only to find him dead.

* * *

A paramedic stumbled through the streets in a haze. Lately, he was losing control of himself. He remembered waking up one morning covered in blood. Through the grapevine he heard that there was a brutal murder, still unsolved, that occurred the night before. He began to realize that he was a monster, a horrid monster.

He collected himself, though, and pulled out his cell phone.

"Davis?" Darcy's voice cut through the remaining haze. "You know after what happened the last time. . ."

"Darcy, I need your help. Please?" His tone was almost desperate.

"With what?" She sounded concerned.

"You need to kill me. I'm becoming a monster. . ."


	14. Blue and Gold

A/N: Please read and review! Parts based of Smallville Booster and the beginning of Doomsday.

* * *

Alice was going back to The Daily Bugle, and the young photographer, Peter Parker, was having difficulty keeping up with her. They were both sent on yet another wild goose chase. Jameson really wanted to find Spider-Man.

"For someone who can barely walk over a flat surface without falling," he grumbled at her. "You're moving too fast."

She chose to ignore him.

A teenaged boy ran out of a building, looking at a group of other teens across the street. They completely ignored him.

"Guys!" He stammered. "Guys! Wait up!"

He ran across the street, choosing to not pay attention around him. A nondescript vehicle (belonging to Kord Industries) could not stop in time for him. The kid tripped, and there was no time for him to get out of the way. Alice moved to help him, but out of a flash of gold light a man dressed in a gold suit appeared. He created a golden shield to protect the boy.

"Did you see that?"

"It hit him at forty miles an hour!"

"That was so amazing!"

The boy looked at the front of the car that would have hit him in shock and looked at his savior in awe. The man stood up, seeming to enjoy the attention and the praise of the crowd around him, and he helped the boy to his feet.

"Brilliant save, sir."

"It always is, Skeets." Peter ran to the golden hero to take his picture. "Say cheese, kid."

"Uh, cheese?"

Alice looked at the man in confusion.

"Life lesson to remember, kid," the man said to the kid, gesturing around them. "Always keep yourself open to the cameras."

"Who are you?"

"I'm sure you're all wondering who I am," the man said to the crowd around him. "Well, how about the 411? I'm pure gold, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Booster Gold, the greatest hero you've never heard of. . .till now!" He smiled at the crowd around him. "Later today at the Ace of Clubs, I'll be signing autographs."

The boy quickly picked up his bag and walked past the wrecked car. No one noticed a blue beetle crawl into his bag.

"If you need a hero," Booster Gold said. "Ping me."

He walked past Alice and looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Nice glasses."

Alice touched her glasses and looked at him in confusion. A crazy idea formed in her head. He seemed to know her too well, and his voice carried a tone that he knew what her glasses meant.

"Remember!" The man said to the crowd a final time. "It's Booster Gold." He flew off into the sky.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Darcy found an almost freaking out Alice.

"That new hero," she said. "He said 'nice glasses' like he knew who I was!"

"Maybe. . ." Darcy drew the word out. She had certain news she needed to tell Alice, but her problem was an easy distraction. "He just liked your glasses. . .or not. You sure you never seen him before?"

"Booster Gold didn't come here for no reason." She gave Darcy a weird look. "I need to figure out who he is and why he's here."

"So I've heard. . ." Darcy mumbled. "So, Davis called me."

That got her attention. "Darce. . ."

"No, no. Not that. He just needs your help."

"No one knows what the Blur looks like," Alice remarked, remembering Jameson's earlier rant on the unknown entity.

"Step out into the spotlight, girl," Darcy changed topics. The Davis Problem would be too much for Alice, and Darcy had it covered. "Then change your name. The Blur would be useless when you're not blurring any more."

"Booster Gold's got the spotlight," Alice commented. "It might get a little crowded, and besides that's not why I'm doing all this." She shook her head. "What does he need my help for?"

"Um. . .nothing too. . .apocalyptic. I've got it covered."

"Darcy. . ."

"He knows I'm over him," Darcy said. "Besides, he broke up with me. Hated him for awhile."

"What do you mean?"

"He can. . .here." She showed Alice a video of Davis turning into some kind of creature that Alice remembered from her training with Jor-El.

"Phantom Zone," she choked out.

"No," Darcy said. "You're not sending him there! We can work this out. You always say there's always a way, right? Like I said, I have a plan."

* * *

The next day, Alice walked into The Daily Bugle to find a large group of people around her desk. Sitting in her chair was the man in gold, enjoying all the pictures being taken of him. Next to him was a young redheaded woman probably giving him an interview. Peter Parker was glaring at the two.

"He specifically asked for Mary Jane," he told Alice. "He called her the hero maker."

"Are you jealous?"

"No!" Peter denied too much.

Alice walked over to Booster Gold. "You're in my desk."

"I can read." He did not bother to leave.

"Parker! Watson!" Jameson yelled from his office. "Quit wasting your time with Spider-Man or the Blur. We've got a new hero."

* * *

Steve was waiting for Alice, and he noticed a group of teens sitting on the cub, eating and talking. One was farther away, a part of the group and yet not. He opened a can of pop, and it exploded everywhere. A girl walked over to him, offering him her can, and when he opened that one, it exploded. The others laughed, and she kind of joined in. The kid wiped his face and quickly walked past Steve to throw the cans away. There was a sign that read "Kick me" taped to his back. Steve pulled it off for him, and the kid turned to look at him, beaten down.

"What's it say this time?" He asked.

"Kick me."

"I've had worse."

Steve remembered his time before the serum. "Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself."

The kid looked at him in disbelief. "Yeah, easy for you to say."

"I wasn't always like this," Steve remarked. "And I always got into fights with bullies twice my size. Sometimes you have to push back."

"Yeah, sure." The kid was unconvinced. He ran to his bag and tried to find the group of kids he was with.

"Hey, Steve," Alice said behind him. "What's wrong?"

"That kid reminds me of. . ." Steve trailed off. "You seem more stressed."

"Jameson being Jameson," she answered. "I also met someone who would make Tony look humble."

"That's impossible," Steve replied.

* * *

The boy, named Jaime, was stumbling after his so-called friends, and strange voices filled his head. He had no idea where they were coming from, and that bothered him. From his bag came a flash of blue light, and if he was paying attention, he would have seen that beetle crawl up his back and onto his neck. More blue light surrounded Jaime as the beetle attached itself to his neck, and he yelled in pain. The voices were even louder.

"What's happening to me?"

* * *

Darcy led Davis to a glowing green pool. She could not think how Bruce managed to pull that one off.

"I recognize that look," Bruce whispered to Darcy when she asked him for a kryptonite pool. "I have that same look. "

Bruce was busy in a different lab, giving Darcy much needed space.

"This will work?" Davis asked her, staring at the pool with an almost hopeful expression on his face.

"Should."

She gave him privacy as he lowered himself into the pool, to his death. Fifteen minutes past, and Davis should have been dead. He came out of the pool, very shaken and grabbed a knife to stab himself with it. Did not work.

"What's happening to me?"

* * *

Alice was watching a commercial offering Booster Gold's services as a hero.

"Even Stark won't do that," Steve agreed.

"You know," she said quietly. "He's been to every major accident and every major altercation in the city. Maybe even beyond."

"It's probably a good thing to have another hero running around," Steve told her, remembering one of their conversations. "You told me you can't save everyone." he raised an eyebrow. "If i didn't know any better I would have thought you were jealous."

Alice shook her head. "He seems to know when and where these things happen. He doesn't stop the accidents. He sweeps in at the last second for a save, to get the photo-op. If people found out he's only doing this for fame, they'll lose faith in heroes."

"Well, Booster's the least of your problems, Smallville," Tony sauntered into the room. "JARVIS pull up the recent press release of Ted Kord."

A man in a suit was stuck in front of a crowd of reporters, talking about a missing weapon.

"One of his high tech devices went missing when he crashed into Booster Gold," Tony explained. "Smallville, I've heard of your comparison to me. Not amused."

"I said he's worse than you," the former head of PR said.

"Anyway," Tony went back on topic. "He claims that they recovered all their weapons, but there are some things not listed on their R&D reports." He paused for dramatic effect. "Disarming recovered super weapons."

"I'll clean up Booster's mess," Alice said. "This could be dangerous."

"You don't need to do it alone," Steve tried to tell her, but she sped off.

"I'll have JARVIS hack into Kord Industries," Tony told Steve. "We'll figure out what they're missing, and get her out of trouble."

* * *

Peter Parker was in line to speak with the new hero, Booster Gold. Something about the way the man loved the spotlight involved with being a hero. The words his late uncle drifted through his mind: "With great power comes great responsibility."

"You have anything to sign for me, kid?" Booster Gold asked in an almost arrogant tone.

"No," he answered. "I'm a photographer for The Daily Bugle. Your picture?"

"Where's the reporter?" He asked. "Our boss sent her on a different story. . ."

Booster mumbled something under his breath. Something that he may not have known that Peter would have heard. "Her stories made you know who a star. . ."

"And. . .also. . ." Peter made his voice shake. "This is the Blur's city."

"Is it? Look around you, kid. The people here trust the hero they see. The Blur doesn't cut it. They need to look up into the skies."

"Heroism isn't for sale," Peter replied.

"Everything's for sale," he said. "Or at least rent."

"That's why you will never be like the Blur," Peter said.

"Well, that's good," Booster said, lowering his voice in a challenge to Peter. "I didn't come here to be like the Blur. I'm here as a replacement."

Peter left with only one picture, and a voice said into the golden man's ear.

"Is it a wise to steal Alice Kent's destiny, sir?"

"Greatest hero on Earth, Skeets, that's a pretty good job description."

"But, sir -"

"Skeets what other choice do I have?" Booster said, voice a little down. "After all that's happened this is my last chance to be somebody again." He turned to the cheering crowd. "By grabbing Alice Kent's place in history."

* * *

"We can't replace what we've lost. We are not leaving New York till we've found it," the voice of Ted Kord said into his phone.

Alice walked over to him. "Alice Kent. Daily Bugle." Stumbling over her words.

"Press," Ted said. "I've already told them. I'm not giving any interviews or statements." He looked around him. "How'd you get through security. Security!"

"As one of the nation's leading industrialists, I know how busy you must be," Alice began.

"Didn't you work with Stark?" Ted looked at her. "Did he put you up to this? He's not working with the government anymore."

"I'm not working with him anymore," Alice stumbled.

"Right head of PR." He seemed sympathetic.

"That's why I know how busy you must be," she said. "The reason you're still here is proof that whatever this is, is very important. I mean you've come alway here from Chicago to lead the lost and found yourself."

The sympathetic look vanished. "No comment."

"How important is this weapon?" She stumbled. "How dangerous is it?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Who said we were looking for a weapon?" Ted narrowed his eyes.

Alice stumbled through different excuses, but Ted only grew more suspicious and impatient. He had her removed from the premises. When security left her, she removed her glasses and sped into the building, taking pictures of a certain design that looked like a beetle with her cell phone.

* * *

"I have Booster Gold on the line, sir," a man said, giving Ted a cell phone.

"You can assure me you'll be discreet," he said into the phone. "I don't want any more attention."

"I will find this trinket for you," Booster said.

"It is not a trinket. It's a weapon. A very dangerous one. Especially to any who would find it. You need to handle it with caution."

"I will," Booster promised. "As soon as we make a deal."

"I'm sure we can work out some kind of reward, Booster Gold."

"Good, just to keep that in mind. I know you can pull some strings to get me the key to the city."

"You want the key to the city?" Ted asked in disbelief.

"Just a last thing to do on my checklist."

"Whatever it takes to get the scarab back."

* * *

"I'm gonna need a sound check," Booster Gold said to the technician. "People need to hear my acceptance speech."

The teen boy, Jaime, walked over to the golden hero.

"Mr. Gold," he said to the hero.

"Hey, a fan," he said to the boy.

"I need your help," Jaime said. "Something happened to me."

"Look, if you need anything, call the hotline, alright?" He tapped the boy's shoulder.

"I tried, they said you were here."

"I am here," Booster agreed. "Kinda busy." He tried to walk away.

"I don't know what to do!" Jaime yelled. Booster chuckled. "Something attacked me."

"I'll make sure they pencil you in," Booster said. "You look alright to me."

Jaime began to quietly freak out. "No. Not alright at all." He stumbled away, and the voices in his head were getting louder and more intense. He was surrounded by blue light, and the pain became too much. Blue metal followed the light, covering him with an armor that kind of looked like a beetle. He began to move without his control.

* * *

Alice showed Tony the pictures of the drawings, and he spent the night very interested in its design and trying to figure out the puzzle of how it worked. Earlier that afternoon, she heard Peter talking to Mary Jane.

"He said he thinks he'll replace the Blur," she heard Peter say.

"It's not a competition," Mary Jane practically said the words going through Alice's mind.

"M.J., the Blur should not be forgotten because some golden showboater swoops for a nice photo op."

* * *

"That scarab," Tony said. "It's some kind of extraterrestrial technology. When they brought it in, it bonded with some scientist, almost like a parasite. Became one. He killed three people and died when they tried to take it off."

"So, it's somewhere here in New York City," Clint said. "What is it with this city and aliens?"

"Kord hired Booster Gold to find it," Alice said. "In exchange for the key to the city."

Alice ran to where Booster was.

"Blur-girl," Booster said to her. "I mean Alice Rog-Kent, I meant Kent."

She looked at him and shook her head. "We need to talk."

"Fine," he said. "It is true about this city, even after that alien invasion, it really does have everything. Except for someone to look up to."

"And that's you," Alice said, too calmly.

"It's gonna be me, yep."

Alice snorted. "You save people for fame, money, while the real heroes are earning the people's trust." She noticed the very familiar ring on his finger. "I know that ring. I have one just like it. Where'd you get a Legion ring? You're a Legionnaire?"

"Not exactly," Booster said. "They are really good friends of mine. . .more like acquaintances, actually."

"Wait. . .you stole that ring!"

"I borrowed it," Booster defended. "I am from the future. I do know everything that's about to happen when it's about to happen with the assistance of my historical data droid." He tapped his ear piece. "Say hello, Skeets."

"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Kent," came the robotic voice.

"Time travel's not something to play around with," Alice scolded. "The fact that you're here means you've already changed history. I doubt that Skeets has anything about the Kord scarab."

"He does."

"Negative, sir."

"It doesn't matter. I can handle it, Alice," Booster said. "You're talking to the single greatest hero of the twenty-fifth century. I'm worshipped by billions. I'm kind of a big deal."

Alice sighed. "Till someone gets hurt."

"Not gonna happen. Trust me. I know what this is really about," Booster said. "You can't stand the fact that people are choosing me over you." Alice did not say anything. "You want the glory, don't you? I'll give you your chance. Right through that door, I'll get the key to the city. History says that whoever gets the key becomes this city's greatest hero. Steel or gold. Your choice. You gotta show me up. Reveal yourself to the world. Put that suit on display and steal my thunder. What d'you say?"

Alice remembered the words Steve, of all people, told her.

"The suit doesn't make the hero. A hero's made in the moment by the choices he makes and the reasons he makes them. A hero brings out the best in people. I don't doubt that behind that star, there is a hero, but I haven't seen him. . .not yet."

Booster Gold struggled to keep his composure, not showing that Alice's words got to him. "I knew you didn't have the cajones to smile for the camera, Alice. I knew it."

"They're ready for you, sir."

"That's my cue." Booster walked away. "Oh, and Alice? Hang up the glasses and the red and blue. You won't be needing them, anymore." He put on his gold shades. "The world has me now."

* * *

Booster Gold was going through another rehearsal of receiving the key. The blue armored clad Jaime came into the room.

"Wait. . .no. . .no. . ." Jaime was saying, but he could not control the suit.

He aimed his weapons at the stage, right at Booster Gold.

"Target. Destroy."

The weapon was shot, and Booster rolled out of the way.

"No. . .Stop. . ." Jaime was saying again. He started shooting at everything around him. "Just stop!"

Booster was looking at the chaos around him. "Skeets, this wasn't supposed to happen. What's going on?" The beetle robot shot some more.

"I have no record on our apparent attacker. It appears that Alice Kent was right. Our presence here has made my historical data somewhat inaccurate."

The blue beetle robot shot at the running people who barely managed to get out of the way in time.

"I'm sorry!" Jaime was saying, even though they could not hear him."

One person in the crowd saw the golden hero. "Booster, what are you gonna do?"

The robot turned to her, ready to shoot at her. She closed her eyes, accepting her fate.

"May I offer some advice from your former career, sir? Go big, or go home."

At the same time, Alice heard the commotion from outside and went against the running crowd. She saw the blue beetle robot attacking what was left of the crowd and the building. The scarab found someone. She went and changed, very quickly, into her Blur outfit. The robot shot at the woman. Blue fire coming right at her. Alice ran to stand between her and the fire, taking it without even wincing. She disappeared, helping people out of the building, and the chaos vanished.

"The Blur," she whispered to herself with a small smile and hope twinkling in her eyes.

Booster Gold also saw the red and blue blur, and he took in one more steadying breath. A new resolve strengthened him. He stood up before the robot.

"Hey!" He yelled at it, one arm pointing at it.

"No. . .NO!" Jaime said within the suit, fearing the worst.

Booster shot at the robot, and Jaime screamed in the suit as it flew back through the room. Booster stood over the robot.

"One move, bug, and I will zap you to honey bee heaven."

"Wait, no. . .it's not me," Jaime said in the suit. "I can't control this."

The blue beetle robot knocked his hand out of the way and grabbed Booster's neck, and it stood to its full height. The beetle's face moved away to reveal Jaime.

"Mr. Gold?" He pleaded.

"You're that kid," Booster choked out.

"I can't control this suit!" Jaime was desperate. "Please help me!"

"Listen, kid. I'm sorry I blew you off earlier," Booster choked. Alice ran to them, seeing Booster talking to the poor host, Jaime.

"You can help me! You're a hero!"

"No I'm not," Booster admitted. "Not like you think I am, kid. But you can. Someone once told me that the suit doesn't make the hero, so you fight it."

"I - I can't," Jaime spluttered out as his face was covered.

"Yes you can. Just fight it. You can be a hero. You just gotta have faith in yourself," Booster choked. "In what you're going to be. It's your choice, kid. You choose."

"Okay. . .okay. . ." Jaime was saying to himself. "I can do this. I can!"

He dropped Booster to the ground, and the scarab armor disappeared in a flash of blue light. Jaime fell to the ground, completely exhausted, but he did feel accomplished with himself.

Booster was clearly moved by what he said, and that it actually worked. He held out his hand for Jaime. "Kid, are you okay?"

Jaime scrambled to his feet. "Yeah."

"Alright," Booster said, relieved, and Jaime hugged him. Booster saw Alice looking at them in what could only be described as approval, and he returned the hug.

* * *

Alice and Booster Gold watched SHIELD do a quick clean up of what just happened.

"You surprised me," Alice said.

"I surprised myself," Booster admitted. "But still, I screwed up. Major. I thought if I did everything you did or going to do, I'd take your spot in history."

Alice turned her head to the side. "Question is, why?"

"Why?" Booster laughed bitterly. "I forget, you've never felt it. The rush of being out there, being that miracle that people are hoping for, looking people in the eye and letting them know that they're going to be safe." Booster gave another bitter laugh. "You never wanna let that feeling in." He looked at Jaime talking with Tony and Ted. "That poor kid took the brunt of my ego, Alice. Truth is, I am from the future, but I'm no hero. I was a sports star. After a while, I started throwing them. It was easier to lose."

"You still feel that way now?" Alice asked him, concerned.

"No, I don't. The damage is done, now. The future I got caught my fame, my fortune all went down the toilet along with my dignity, my reputation. You were right, I stole the ring. Stole the suit. Even Skeets"

"Affirmative, sir."

Booster sighed. "I came here to make a fresh start, and I made all the same mistakes. My little sister, she said the exact same thing to me when my football career ended. She said that 'the suit doesn't make the hero.'"

"You helped Jaime break free of that scarab," Alice pointed out.

"I was using your words."

"Doesn't matter," Alice said, smiling a little. "The fact is, in the moment when you believed them, so did he. And, to be honest, some of those words were said to me, once."

"Yeah, well, I better get heading back."

"You still have work here to do," Alice said. "Ted Kord agreed to let Jaime keep the scarab. He'll need someone to watch over him. I know that it's not the front page victory you were hoping for, but it's an important one."

Booster looked at the kid, his lowness gone. He laughed. "Yeah, yeah." He looked at Alice. "You know what? I've got some advice for you too."

"What's that?" Alice asked.

"The Blur? No, it sounds like a rollercoaster. You need something strong. Something simple. Something that actually starts with that 'S' you wear. Something. . .super. You gotta brand it, baby, you know?"

"I'll start brainstorming."

* * *

"This kid is unique," Ted Kord said in amazement. "He managed to shut down the scarab."

"I'm guessing not everyone has what it takes to do that," Bruce said, walking by. "This will mean you'd be able to remove it?"

"Wait, no!" Jaime said. "I mean, will that take away the power that it gives me?"

"Yes, but -" Ted was trying to say.

"I wanna learn how to use them," Jaime said. "I want to be a hero like Booster Gold."

"I don't know, kid," Booster said. "I say we give Miss Kent, over there, an exclusive on the real hero." He gently punched Jaime on the shoulder.

* * *

Bruce found Darcy desperately going through the different cabinets.

"Oh, hey," she said when she found him watching her. "Jane needs pop-tarts, and I have a feeling we might have to make a pop-tart run."

"Why did you want to help him?" Bruce asked.

"There's something inside of him, he told me, and he had to kill to keep it under control," Darcy answered. "Back when Brainniac had me, I remember being at Allie's Fortress, trying make sure he would be that monster I - Brainniac wanted Davis to be." She lowered her voice. "He told me he was created to kill Alice. The only thing in the world that could really succeed."

"It was for Alice?"

"Yeah, it was," Darcy answered. "The world needs her too much." She looked at Bruce. "What's up?"

"I'm sure you've heard of the Kord scarab?" Darcy nodded. "The kid managed to control something that dangerous."

"You can control the Hulk."

"Yeah, but. . ."

Davis walked to Darcy. "Nothing can kill me now, and the monster is getting hungry." He looked worried. "You're the only one who can keep me from killing Alice."

* * *

Alice was sitting in the hallway, talking to Steve. He noticed that for once she was happy. Her eyes did not look like they were carrying all the whole world's problems on her shoulders. There was a flash of purpled at one end of the hallway. There appeared Rokk, one of the Legionnaires from the thirty-first century.

"I hope I'm not too late," he told Alice.

"For what?" She asked.

"The future." He looked very serious. "I know that when we travel back, we take the chance of disrupting fate. To be honest, Kal, after traveling back and changing the future, I might not have one to go back to."

"I don't understand," Alice countered. "You said that if we got rid of Brainniac the future would be safe."

"Yes," Rokk agreed with her. "Everything is safe. Brainniac is gone." He paused as if trying to find the words for what he needed to say. "So are you. When you saved Darcy, you saved her connection to Doomsday."

Alice visibly paled at the second name.

"Allie?" Steve asked, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"Something created back at. . .home," she answered. Her voice was shaking. "Created to kill me and all life on a planet."

"She will stopped you from sending him to the Phantom Zone. She made him invinceble by trying to kill him with kryptonite. And now, because of Darcy, you cannot kill him."

"I will never take back my choice to save her," Alice said.

"I know. Use your ring. Send Doomsday to the future. The Legion's there, and we are ready to fight him."

The happiness that Alice had drained away. "The Legion didn't unleash Doomsday. I did."

"Kal-El," Rokk said. "You need to understand. There is nothing on this Earth that will stop him from killing you!'

"My father always told me that I was sent here to save mankind," Alice said. "Maybe this is my true destiny." The realization did not make her happy. "How much time do I have?"

"Tomorrow is the day that you die," Rokk answered.

* * *

Loki paced in his cell as his brother stared him down.

"Why are you treating me as the criminal?" he demanded of Thor. "Right now, Thanos is gathering the infinity gems. When his minions freed me, they took the gauntlet. That could mean only one thing. . ."

"Brother," Thor said. "Before now, you've done nothing to build our trust. For all we know, if we free you, Kal-El will be dead."

"Her time may be up," Loki spat. "She did not come alone. A creature, now made invincible, came with her. Something designed to kill her and your precious Earth! All will be lost!" He glared at his foster brother. "Your mistrust has ruined us all."


	15. Doomsday

A/N: Some parts are from the smallville season 8 "doomsday" like the letter. . .still fitting with Alice. . .

* * *

_"Tomorrow is the day you die."_

Steve saw Rokk vanish in a flash of purple light. The Legionnaire's final words filled him with dread.

"Allie," he said. "Send him to the future."

He heard her sigh. "I can't do that, Steve."

"You heard him. . ." Steve's voice broke. "Tomorrow. . ."

"He also said there is nothing on Earth that can stop him," Alice told him. "He'd kill them too."

"I know," Steve fumbled. "It's just. . .I don't want to lose you too."

Alice looked at him. Her ice blue eyes full of tenderness and mostly sadness.

"I have to do this." She gently ran a hand through his hair. "It's my choice."

Steve winced when he heard her words. He did say the same thing before he crashed. He pulled her closer to him and held her close.

* * *

Deep in the shadows of New York, a man sat in front of an extremely high tech computer. The recent string of unsolved murders bothered him. He felt the solution was obvious. One person was always connected to those killings: a certain paramedic by the name of Davis Bloome. For a couple days, he tracked the man's whereabouts, which led him to Stark Tower. Bloome was talking to someone described to be a lab assistant, Darcy Lewis. Then. . .nothing. Both the lab assistant and the paramedic disappeared without a trace.

At that moment, he came across a strange video. It was one of Bloome, but he transformed into some kind of monster. The monster was grey and covered in spikes, and he had red eyes. The creature killed, so Bloome could remain normal. It was always like that for each of the killings. This video was from right before Lewis and Bloome vanished. He was about to turn into the creature, but she said something to him. Bloome remained human.

"So, Bats," the voice of his adopted son and protege broke the silence. "What's the plan?"

"The woman's in danger, but at least she's giving us time to plan," the man said. "She calms the man down enough for the monster sleep."

"So the plan. . .?"

"I have no idea where they went," he grudgingly admitted. "For all we know they could be on the other side of the world."

He passed a hand over his tired eyes. It had been a long night (even though it was late afternoon), and it was only starting. In this city, no one ever sleeps, not even the criminally insane and especially not her masked heroes.

"Master Bruce," the voice of the ever faithful butler called out through the dark cave. "Mister Stark wishes to speak with you."

The man, Bruce Wayne, sighed to himself. It would be a very long night, indeed.

"Dick," he said to Nightwing. "Start patrol without me. I might be a little late."

* * *

Alice was staring at the computer in front her. She was writing a goodbye letter for the Blur. Just in case she did not make it.

"Whatcha writing, Kent?" Peter Parker asked her, making her close the window.

"Stuff."

"About that Beetle kid?"

"You mean Blue Beetle?" She corrected. "Finished it. Jameson massacred it."

Booster Gold managed to contact her when that article was published, and she had to patiently explain to him how much Jameson disliked the masked vigilantes.

"Well, what are you writing?" Peter persisted. He was getting a little suspicious of the stuttering reporter before him. She had worse excuses than him when she needed to leave suddenly.

"Email to a friend." It was kind of the truth.

She turned off her computer and left the room, and she pulled out her untrackable phone and called Mary Jane.

"I have a letter for you to publish," she said in a disguised voice. She sped near the other reporter, leaving the letter.

Mary Jane was one of the very few people who stood up to Jameson when it came to reporting the actions of the superheroes. She was the one person who risked her job to tell the truth. She was trusted to publish the final letter. Maybe that was why Booster Gold was so desperate to have her interview him.

"Goodbye?" Mary Jane skimmed through the letter. "You're leaving?"

"This is just in case," Alice said. "You'll know when."

She was back at her apartment building. With Darcy gone, it was strangely quiet, and that did not make her feel any better. In fact, it made her feel worse. Her oldest of friends was near Doomsday who was still in love with her, and she was over him. Darcy's days were numbered, and it was all because she listened to her to not send him to the Phantom Zone.

"Allie?" Steve found her. He was on his way back to the gym.

"Worried about Darcy," she said. Admitting to him that she was considering sending Doomsday to the future was not an option.

Steve closed his eyes, but he did move over to her. He played with a strand of her hair and stared into her eyes, looking like he was finding the words to say something very important to her.

"Allie. . .I. . ." he stumbled through his words. "Really. . .uh care about you." He looked away from her, letting go of the that strand of hair. "I understand why you will fight him, but. . .I just. . .can't lose you."

She cocked her head to the side, and she realized that if their roles were reversed, she would feel the same way. No that was not it. One reason why she thought about sending Doomsday to the future was to not hurt Steve. She really did feel the same way.

"Steve, I. . ."

"Allie. . ."

They were not sure who started it, or maybe it just happened. They were kissing. It was short, but they could still feel it long after.

* * *

He found the latest picture of the young lab assistant and the killer. Upon first look it just looked like a normal stop for a couple on a getaway, but he was practiced enough to look at what was truly happening. It showed a young woman afraid for her life and a young man truly about to lose control, and they were in the middle of nowhere. . .

"They're in Smallville, Kansas," the man who was called the Batman realized.

He found articles in the local high school paper, all written by the young woman and her friend. Each one spoke of a mysterious good samaritan with seemingly extraordinary abilities, and each save matched the ones found in New York City. As always no one would have really looked for that.

"Oracle," he said. "How can you get a hold of the Blur?"

* * *

A redhead woman, Mary Jane, was waiting beneath Stark Tower after receiving an interesting email. It was practically midnight, and the moon was full, creating a lot of shadows.

"You're Mary Jane Watson?" a gravelly voice asked her.

"Who's asking?" She worriedly responded.

The voice's owner stepped from the shadows. He was in all black, bringing to mind a bat. Her eyes widened in shock. So the urban legends were true! The Batman was real.

"I think you know." He handed her a folder.

"What's this?" She looked through the folder.

"Something to help the Blur," he rasped. "Something big's going to happen, and she can do it."

A red and blue blur ran past the strange duo, and the folder was missing.

"Showoff." Mary Jane swore she heard the Batman mutter.

* * *

Alice looked through the file. Both Darcy and Davis were back in Smallville, of all places. She could not help but think that it was a fitting place to run off to, and it was probably one of the better places to be if a fight broke out: open fields and not a whole lot of people. Darcy looked like she could barely keep herself from running from Davis. Poor girl.

She dug into her desk and found a led box, and she opened it to show a black rock. Davis and Doomsday would be separated. No one else need die today.

* * *

Steve found her staring at a black rock, and she would not stop scowling at it.

"Loki wants to speak with you," Steve said through clenched teeth.

She nodded and set the rock aside to follow him to the holding cell. Alice stayed close to him, not out of fear but the need to stay close to him. Loki walked around his holding cell like a bored animal.

"Kal-El," he smugly said in greeting. "For someone who is living their last day, you seem surprisingly calm."

Alice said nothing to him.

"I only requested your presence to help you defeat your greatest of foes," Loki said.

"Thank you, but I have a plan," Alice said, far too calmly.

"Why save the human?" Loki asked in confusion.

"Why not?" Alice replied with a stoic expression.

Steve tried not to wince. Her need to save everyone. . .

"You could unleash a monster without a conscience," he told her.

Loki chuckled. "Your time among these humans have made you weak. You will not do what it takes to save this rock." He laughed again. "And my master feared you."

Alice's lips twitched. "I think my stay here has made me stronger."

"If you are still breathing, Kal-El." Loki smirked. "Come back again, and I will help you towards your, shall we say, high flying destiny."

* * *

Darcy and Davis were back in Smallville, and, with Bruce's help, they were under the radar. No one, not even Tony or SHIELD knew where they were. Davis would tell her Greek stories of a woman choosing to live with the monster which would end with him saying they would settle down to a quiet life. Together. She could not help but think about her own quiet life with Bruce and never with Davis. How would she tell him that? She ran away with him to protect Alice. That was what friends were for, right? Davis would never understand that, and she could only imagine how he would react. . .

* * *

Alice was staring down Diana Prince, the new babysitter for the Avengers. The woman kept telling her that splitting Doomsday and Davis could cause a multitude of problems.

"What makes you think that the man is any better than the monster?" She kept asking.

"Because I always believe in the best of people," Alice would respond. "You should try it sometime."

"Then what would happen if you take away the conscience?" The agent asked.

"I can fight him, if I have to." Alice stood up from the small meeting, making sure the little led box was with her. "I have to go."

She walked out of the round room, a certain resolve growing within her.

"Bruce?" She found the nervous scientist. "Tell Darcy I'm on my way."

Alice walked past Steve who grabbed her arm.

"Allie," he said quietly. "Remember what Rokk said."

"Yeah, but I also remember what my birth father told me," she said just as quietly. "I don't stop him, then nothing will. The whole world. . .gone."

She knew that Steve would understand, but she also knew that he did not like it. That much became apparent during the past few hours. Steve pulled her closer to him and rested his forehead against hers, wrapping his arms around her in a kind of embrace. It was short, too short, but it was enough. Alice untangled herself and gave him a sad smile.

In a blink of an eye, she was back in Smallville and in front of Darcy's old childhood home. There was Darcy talking to Davis in the front yard, facing the large field that her father once made his living on. She quietly walked to Darcy and handed her the lead box, and Darcy quietly opened it. She took out the black rock just as Davis's eyes began to turn red and he began to sweat. Darcy slashed the rock across his chest, and Davis fell to the ground leaving Doomsday in his place.

"Darce, run!"

Darcy helped Davis scramble to his feet, and they both stumbled away.

* * *

He tracked the young woman to Smallville, to her old home. She was talking to the killer, and the red and blue blur ran and stopped next to the young woman, handing her a small lead box. The woman took out a black rock and slashed it across his chest just as he began to transform. They left the Blur and the monster alone. He appeared next to the two runners and led them to safety and to keep an eye on the man.

Both the Blur and the creature began their fight, throwing almost super sonic punches at each other. How the Blur managed to take each punch was remarkable, so he filed that one away for future reference.

The Blur took one punch too many and collapsed to the ground. Her face was all bloody, and she was having problems getting to her feet.

"You did all this for Alice!" The man yelled. "I thought we had something!"

"We did," the young woman replied. "But that was in the past."

He stepped between the fuming man and the young woman.

"Darcy," the man said. "I was foolish then. You kept me sane, Darce."

The young woman took a step back. "Davis, I'm sorry, but I moved on."

Davis took a step towards her, trying to move past him. He pulled out one a couple smoke bombs and threw them at their feet. That allowed Darcy to run to safety, and he was able to knock Davis out.

It turned out that the man was just as bad as the monster.

* * *

Alice struggled to her feet. Her head was swimming and pounding. Doomsday looked down at her, enraged at her continued existence. Just as the sun went down, both of them gave one final punch. She knew that the fight was won, but she carried only one regret.

A tall and strange man stood over her, and everything went black. . .

* * *

Darcy was crying very hard, and everything Bruce tried to say to console her. Out of nowhere, she walked into the Tower talking of Alice's fight and death.

Steve was at the gym, punching away at his fifth straight punching bag since Darcy's arrival. It felt like he just woke up again.

_"No one could find her body."_

_"There is nothing on the face of the Earth that can stop him from killing you."_

_"Tomorrow is the day that you will die."_

There was nothing. . .she was gone. . .forever. . .

* * *

_You have welcomed me into your city and allowed me to make it my home. I will always be grateful of that. Which is why I cannot leave without saying goodbye. This newspaper has made me into what you think I am - an example, a symbol, a "hero." But the truth is, I'm simply one of you. The only difference is that my days in the shadows and my nights on the streets have allowed me to see what you've lost sight of - the good in each of you._

_I've seen regular people do extraordinary things. I've seen you help each other up after you've been knocked down. I've seen you stand together when times are tough. And I've seen the smallest act make the biggest change. If I've done anything right, I hope it's help you realize one person can make a difference in the lives of others - that New York City doesn't need a hero. Have faith in yourself and you will find hope in each other._

_Remember, it's not the mask that makes the hero. It's the choices we make and desire to do what's right. I've seen that desire in all of you. It inspired me to promise I would do everything in my power to protect this city - but I can't promise that I'll be around forever. One day, there may be a fight I cannot win. But if that comes, please, keep fighting without me to make the world a better place. Be the heroes I know you are._

_The Blur_


	16. Return

A/N: Please Read and Review!

* * *

Some man had a gun and was holding the people in the bank hostage. He knew he was not going to get away with anything, but he had to at least try. One of the hostages took it upon himself to challenge the gunman which ticked him off. Three shots were fired, and a red and blue blur appeared. The gunman's gun practically melted in his hands, and he was taken outside to the waiting police officers. Beside him was the "S" inside a shield.

* * *

He was ice cold as was always the case whenever they woke him up. Ever since he killed one of them the first time, they were always careful with him, making sure to mess with his mind before letting down their guard around him. Or that may not even be the case for him. With all the false memories they gave him, he was not sure what was real anymore. He had one target, though. They wanted him gone, and he, for some reason, carried a certain disappointment from him.

His robotic hand rested on the gun at his side as he eyed his next target. A former Army man turned S.H.I.E.L.D. asset. He would either spend time at the gym or sit at a cafe, sketching. The look the man carried bothered him, for some reason. There were times he had to fight down the urge to talk to him, to comfort him as a friend. He shook his head to clear it. There was still the mission.

The man was walking back to his apartment from the gym, and he definitely looked like he had not slept in a long time. He stepped in front of the man who did a double take, and the man gave a faint smile. It vanished when he saw the gun pointed at him. He fired his gun, but something strange happened. The man vanished, leaving behind an "S" within a shield.

* * *

Steve was looking through the pictures of his squad from the war. They were faded, but he could still make out the faces of each person. One in particular bothered him. Bucky. His oldest of friends, and one of the few people who did not see the ninety pound asthmatic. A brother to him. He still relived watching him fall to his death and not being able to help him.

The man who pulled a gun at him. He looked like Bucky, but he was not. There was no way that Bucky would try to kill him.

"Winter Soldier," Nick Fury said. "The Soviets must have found him after he fell."

Natasha was uneasy when Steve told his story, purposefully leaving out how he escaped. No one would believe that part.

"Natasha?" He asked her.

"The Winter Soldier," she muttered. "He trained me."

The only people who were not surprised by that piece of information were Nick and Clint.

"They messed with his mind so much," she continued. "I don't think there's any way to help him. I'm so sorry, Steve."

* * *

He was on patrol, and a rather rough shapened bat-signal lit up in the night sky. Batman followed it, cautiously, only to find a young woman in red and blue waiting for him.

"Thank you for helping out my friend," she said.

"Heard you died."

"In a way," she evaded. "Keep an eye out for strange thefts."

"I've been doing this awhile," he rasped. "How strange are we talking here?"

"From what I've heard," she answered. "There are six gems. When together they give their owner immense power, so they had to be separated. A long time ago. The gems are somewhere around the world. Someone's going to steal them."

"Fairy tales," he replied.

"If there is an unexplained robbery, let me know." Her eyes widened. "Bruce Wayne?"

* * *

A stranger of every sense of the word appeared near a young woman dressed in red and blue. Ever since he healed her from almost certain death, the young woman hardly, if ever, showed her human persona. That could never end well. He allowed the world around the both of them to stop, and she finally realized she was not alone.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Just a stranger passing through," he evaded. "I was the one who healed you after your fight with the one they call Doomsday."

She narrowed her eyes, like she was trying to place him, but that would never work for her. He was not called the Phantom Stranger for nothing.

"I have healed Kal-El," he said, earning a surprised look from the woman. Nothing could be hidden from him. "Now, I will heal Alice Kent."

"Alice Kent is dead."

"You have spent your whole life thinking the Kryptonian part of you was dangerous, but now you believe it is the human part that is so."

"It forms attachments. Makes decisions based on those," she agreed. "That fight should never have been the way it was. All those people did not have to be killed by Davis."

The world around them began to melt away and change into something else entirely.

"As you have said once before," the Stranger said. "Those feelings make you the hero." A new landscape surrounded them. It was the same, yet eerily different. "I will show you what you have done if you chose to ignore those emotions."

* * *

"She peeked," Batman told Nightwing while they were on patrol.

"She'll keep quiet," Nightwing said. "What was the message she left?"

"Strange thefts. Tied to some fairy tale."

Almost on cue, they heard alarms, and they had to go stop a potential robbery. They came to the scene only to find a rather strange looking thief, and that was saying a lot based on their past experiences. They were easily subdued, somehow, and the strange thief left with a valueless orange gem. That thief practically vanished into thin air, effectively freeing the two of them.

Later in the cave, he was looking into information on that gem. All he found showed that it had no value, so why was it stolen. It made no sense. Unless. . .he needed to find a way to get a hold of the Blur.

* * *

Steve came back to his apartment, but he was not alone. His thoughts went to the Winter Soldier, but a woman's voice greeted him.

"Steve, it's me."

"Allie," Steve could barely say. "I thought. . .you died."

"In a way," Alice replied. "For a little while there, I kept thinking that Alice Kent was dead."

"Davis wasn't your fault."

She shook her head. "So you say, but someone made me realize that line of thinking couldn't be good."

"Who?"

"Didn't say," she said. "I'm sorry about your friend."

"That was you," he remarked. "Why didn't you talk to me?"

Alice looked around her uncomfortably. "That was still during the time I thought Alice was dead." She looked thoughtful. "I can help you save your friend."

"I've been told that there is no way to help him," Steve said almost bitterly.

"Meaning they won't bother." She was thinking. "A friend of my father's can help. He's a telepath."

"A mutant?" Steve was confused.

"No." She smiled. "A Martian. Anyway, he could help fix any of the brainwashing they did to him."

Steve was quiet. "This doesn't change the fact you didn't come to me when you were alright."

"I still think it's too dangerous to be around me."


	17. Interlude

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

She was walking through the streets of New York by herself, not that she had anything to worry about. If anyone tried to bother her, she could beat them in a fight rather easily. She had a very important meeting. A meeting with the man she had not seen in decades.

He was the one who taught her to fight, made her the weapon she was, and he was the one who really and truly understood her. Recently he made contact with her, and she agreed to speak with him. She was known to leave at strange times as her job required her to, so her sudden departure would have gone unnoticed.

"It's been awhile," the voice from her past said from behind her. "You cut your hair."

"It was only getting in the way," she replied, hugging him. "How did you get out?"

"Someone found me," he said, darkly. She knew that being frozen was always tough for him.

"They want the Captain," he told her, letting her go. "Alive."

"The serum," she remarked.

"Not the serum," he countered. "They want another. . .me. Why not the man who probably won the war single handedly?"

She could see why they would want the man, remembering how he could take control of any given situation.

"He's been having a difficult time lately," she remarked.

"Girl trouble." His voice was lighter than she ever heard, but he clutched at his head. "He's distracted?"

"Very."

She lead him to the apartment building and to a certain door. They could hear a quiet conversation on the other side of the door.

"Allie," the man's voice said. "You can't save everyone."

"I know, but. . ."

The woman stopped talked and started gasping for air when she came into the apartment holding a green rock. When the woman was doubled over on the ground, she placed the rock next to her.

"Natasha?" The man's voice asked in confusion and betrayal. He saw who came in after her.

The young woman tried to stand, but she only feebly moved her head to the side. Natasha messed with her Widow Sting and shocked the man, knocking him out.

* * *

Darcy was walking back to her apartment after an incredibly long day in the lab. Jane almost had a breakthrough, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to take a break and eat something. She stopped walking. Someone was following her.

"Miss Lewis," a voice behind her rasped.

"Depends on who's asking," Darcy said, looking for her taser as she turned to look at the voice's owner.

"I wasn't asking."

"Fine," she said, recognizing the man in all black. "I know you. You were there when. . ."

"You know where to find the Blur," he remarked.

"Well, yeah."

"I have information for her."

Darcy thought for a moment, but she did agree to take him to Alice. It probably had something to do with the fact that Alice could punch him through a wall if she had to. She pointed him to the window of Alice's apartment, and he was gone.

When she made it back to her apartment, she found Alice laying on the ground with kryptonite near her, and she was having difficulty breathing. Darcy quickly removed the rock, and Alice was slowly looking normal.

"What happened?" Batman rasped.

"A traitor," she gasped her answer.

"Wait," Darcy finally realized something. "Where's Steve?"

"Natasha led the Winter Soldier here," Alice answered. She still looked a little pale. "They left with him."

Darcy remembered the attack on Steve not too long ago. "Crap. We have to get him!"

"We aren't doing anything," Alice said, looking serious. "I'll go."

"I'll help," Batman rasped.

"Don't need your help," Alice replied. "I got this."

"Where did they take him?"

Darcy saw Alice pause and shake her head. She may have muttered "fine."


	18. Soldier

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

Alice was staring into space. The news of his disappearance at Natasha's hands affected the Avengers, according to Darcy, and despite her abilities, she could not have stopped it from happening. Only a few days had passed since that event, and she was already shaking with anticipation to go after him.

Her deal with the Batman was an odd one. She knew very little about him, but he seemed to know enough about her. He knew she was an alien, and the symbol of her family's house could be seen around the world, so the fact that she knew his secret identity was only fair.

Clint was pacing and messing with one of his arrows. The news bothered him the most.

"You think you know a person," he muttered. "I thought she didn't have any relationships during her time in the Red Room." He placed the arrow on a table, and Alice saw him shake his head. "I can't believe she would do this."

"None of us can," Alice tried to say.

"I did," Tony remarked. They all scowled at him. "Do you even know how I met her?"

It became pretty obvious to Alice that S.H.I.E.L.D. would not be of any use to her. Ever. Only trusted agents were assigned to go look for him. None of the Avengers, and their babysitter made it quite clear that if they so much as even looked at a plane, there would be repercussions. Of course, Diana made it clear that none of the Avengers could leave, but when she said it, she gave Alice a knowing look. That woman managed to keep S.H.I.E.L.D. from knowing too much about her. The fact that Clint and Natasha followed her orders said a lot. In short, Diana silently gave Alice permission to go after Steve and Natasha.

* * *

She was accosted by an older teen wearing a black almost jumpsuit that had a blue bird insignia on his chest with a domino mask hiding his identity late one night. Not too far after him was the so-called Caped Crusader.

"I take it you know where," Alice muttered. Though she heard them coming from not too far away, she still felt a little. . .

"You'll be coming alone," he rasped.

The teen snickered. "You just don't want to put up with Stark."

They went on like that for a little while, and Alice grimaced. It was too much like how Steve and Tony would act. One of them blindfolded her, laced with lead, and the teen practically dragged her to some vehicle.

"They took him to Russia," Batman explained.

"For another guy we thought dead," the teen finished.

* * *

Steve was hoping someone got to Alice before she died slowly and painfully. That was the first thought he had. The second and third involved his kidnappers. One: Natasha rather willingly led the Winter Soldier to Steve. Two: the Winter Soldier was definitely a very much alive Bucky, but in a way he was not. He had a blank expression on his face, and he did not even recognize his old friend.

"It has taken me a long while to find you," a familiar voice greeted him.

No, it could not be. . .

"After our last meeting," the man explained. "I waited, and I learned of something very vital." The man gestured to the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow. "At first I could send your friend to kill you, but that would have been a waste." No one noticed a strange expression flash across Bucky's face. "You'll be like him. An assassin. Why waste that serum on a weak soldier."

The face of the Red Skull glowered at him.

* * *

"How does the Black Widow fit in all this?" Alice asked the duo.

"He trained her," Batman answered. Of course he would know. "They had some kind of relationship."

Alice shook her head. "She's the one to say that love is for children. . . why is the Red Skull involved in all this?"

The duo explained to her how after his last mission, the Soldier disappeared apparently taken out of commission. Somehow, one of the Red Skull's followers found where his frozen body was hidden and stole him. But beyond that. . .

They were over the Russian base, and the teen, Nightwing, started messing with an electronic device.

"Distraction," he explained to the glared he received by his mentor. "They already know we're here."

Alice took off the blindfold. "I can just jump out, right here."

Nightwing gave her a look. "I'll never get used to that."

"You need a plan," Batman remarked and glared at her. "You are not going to barge in there."

She flinched, earning a smirk from Nightwing. "I'm going to run in there. No one will see me."

"The woman knows your weakness."

That was how the three of them snuck into the compound. Alice rather grudgingly admitted that he knew how to plan. Which got her to thinking. . .

He gave orders that put her in the position to do the most good with her abilities, so moving through the compound was not difficult, to say the least.

"You dare try to stop my father!" A young woman with red hair demanded. She carried two swords in her hands.

Nightwing was not fazed. He did face down a psychotic clown with his mentor on occasion, so a crazy ginger with swords. . .not that bad.

"Never heard of him," Nightwing taunted. He was swinging down to land near her, and his own weapons were in his hands.

"Johann Schmidt," she snapped. "The Red Skull!"

"Oh," he replied, smirking. "Isn't he the guy who lost to Captain America?"

She attacked him, and he blocked her move for move. The woman, though trained by probably some of the best swordsmen in the world, was no match for a protege of Batman. Of course, there were some things she could not let slide.

"Gypsy filth!" she spat when she was tied up after losing. "Your presence disgusts me!"

"What a charming woman," Alice heard Nightwing say.

She heard a gunshot, and she ran between the bullet and Batman, catching it and dropping it at the shooter's feet. She used her heat vision to destroy the gun, and she ran down the dimly lit corridor, leaving a truly bewildered shooter who honestly thought that it was the Batman who did all that.

* * *

For some reason, he did not like the plan that was going to unfold. He remembered him from some distant and foggy time, and he was not sure if that was a real or planted memory. She eyed him and gave a slight nod. Just like old times, if he could remember them right. He pointed a gun at the Red Skull at the same time she did.

"What is this?" the Red Skull asked, clearly angered at their actions, but before he could say anything more, alarms were going off. The compound's security had been compromised.

The doors burst open, and a red and blue blur knocked different guards to the ground, leaving their weapons a melted mess. That seemed very familiar to him. Behind the red and blue blur came in two men in black.

"You could have left something for us!" the younger of the two complained.

He pointed his gun at the two visible newcomers, but a voice made him stop.

"We're here to get you out, Bucky." The blur stopped, well, blurring, and a young woman was standing next to the captain, who looked relieved to see her.

The Red Skull laughed. "And how do you intend to do that? He's been under my control for over a decade, and not himself for more."

She knelt next to the captain and broke his iron bonds with ease which did not escape their enemy's notice.

"You have the powers of the gods," he demanded. "And you stick to the shadows instead of ruling." He said that as if it was a sin against nature to do so.

The older of the two men in black threw three different objects at the embittered German. He was both tied up and knocked out, while the soldier's and the woman's guns were on the ground.

"We need to go," he rasped. "Now."

* * *

Hours later, Natasha showed S.H.I.E.L.D. a pretty much conquered compound. The chief perpetrators were all neutralized. She did not say how, much to Fury's chagrin.

"I thought I told them they couldn't come here," he almost yelled.

"They listened," Natasha said. "It wasn't the other Avengers."

The captain and the soldier were gone without a trace.

* * *

A detective known as John Jones answered his door to find a strange group. He really only recognized one of them, and he thought she died fighting that creature an enemy of her father's created. The other two had a military look to them, but one had a metal arm and wore a blank and sometimes pained expression on his face.

"He was brainwashed," the young woman explained. "They implanted false memories into him every time he woke up."

He inwardly shuddered. His true abilities helped him realize how dangerous messing with one's mind tended to be. John let them enter his apartment, and once the door was closed, his true form, a green skinned Martian, was revealed.

"Lie him on the couch," he ordered.

They did as he was told, and his eyes turned red as he helped the poor man sort his real memories from his fake ones as well as helping him remember the actions he took during his years as the Winter Soldier. The man clutched at his head, and John finished his sorting.

"Steve?" The man choked out.

"Bucky."

John and the young woman left the two of them to talk.

* * *

"You had that planned," someone told Natasha.

"Planned for S.H.I.E.L.D.," she replied. "Not for some bored vigilantes."

* * *

"I killed all those people," Bucky said in pain.

"It wasn't you," Steve replied. "You weren't in control."

"My body, my arm." He shook his head. "Do I remember correctly that your girl punched a hole through a metal wall?"

"You remember right."

Bucky was obviously trying to ignore a pretty painful topic. "How did you find her?"

"She kind of just appeared."

They talked about how time passed for the both of them, and Bucky was finding it hard to believe that Howard's son would fly around in a metal suit or that a relatively quiet and unassuming doctor could strike fear into anyone's hearts just by saying: "I'm getting angry. You wouldn't like it when I'm angry."

Their conversation was being heard by an overly curious Alice, and she was getting worried. Her father's oldest friend and ally rather patiently waited for her to realize something.

"What?" She asked.

"He sounds like you," John remarked. He was back to his human detective form. "When you talked about fighting Doomsday."

Their conversation was interrupted by the stumbling entrance of Alice. She sat next to Steve and smiled a shy greeting at his friend.

"I'm Alice Kent," she said, stumbling through her words a bit.

"James Barnes," he said. "You can call me Bucky."

"Well, Jams," she ditched the stuttering. "You changed the topic."

"Eavesdropper," he muttered.

"Can't help it." Her tone grew serious. "It's in the past. All of it. Move forward." She must have realized something important because she said the last part like it was a new revelation to her.

"What do you expect me to do?" His voice was darker too. "I took lives."

"What can you do?" Alice asked.

Bucky thought a bit, and he probably came across the same conclusion Natasha did when she was given that choice.

"I want to do some good," he answered. "It won't be enough, but at least it would be something."

"Great moving forward."

* * *

It was always the same. Spider-Man was considered a neighborhood menace, hardly any better than the aliens that destroyed much of the city during that invasion those several months ago. The people he tried to save. . .they only run away from or attack him. It got worse, lately. Jameson wrote an article explaining how it was Spider-Man who killed the Blur, but when the Blur reappeared, he wrote how it was Spider-Man who kept her hidden to join his side. Apparently that was the worse crime.

Those unrelated string of murders that were supposed to be solved? Spider-Man's fault. He framed the poor soul who was in prison for them. The destruction caused by that Blue Beetle? Spider-Man was behind it. Arson was something he did on his downtime, and shooting random people on the street was something he did before going to sleep.

There were few things keeping him going. The last words his uncle said to him: "With great power, comes great responsibility,"the fact that he generally wanted to help people, and there was the fact that some of his rogues were out and about. The few heroes running around the city could use an extra set of hands.

* * *

Steve sat in the hallway with Alice, the first time since Rokk gave his terrible news. After her strange conversation with Bucky, his oldest of friends had a certain change come over him. Brighter, or at least brighter than when he remembered everything he had done during his years as the Winter Soldier.

"Hey, Steve," she greeted quietly. Alice was scrawling something in her notebook probably for work.

"Allie," he said. "About what I said before. . .your fight. . ."

"What about it?"

"It wasn't. . .I still. . ."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "I know."

"You're a remarkable dame," he muttered, knowing she could hear him.

She laughed the laugh he liked. Alice looked lighthearted or about as much as she could given her life. He pulled her closer to him, not wanting to let go of her now that she was back safe and sound. They sat like that for a while; both were not sure how to go on from that moment, or maybe subconsciously they were pushing each other away. Past experience for the both of them was not kind.

Bucky walked passed them, and he sighed.

"You forget everything I told you?" He asked Steve.

Of course at that moment, Darcy had to make her own appearance.

"We could lock them in a room," she suggested helpfully.

"She'll just punch her way through," Bucky said, shuddering a little. It may have bothered him a little that he could have went up against someone incredibly powerful.

"I know stuff. . ." Darcy was holding a necklace that had a blue stone. "Kind of wish you hadn't told me, huh, Alice?"


	19. Past

A/N: read and review!

* * *

That was how Alice found herself locked in a room with Steve, and all because Darcy was sick of them tiptoeing around each other. Somehow Tony heard about it and loved the plan, so he went one better. He had Darcy and Bucky take them to the Tower, and he lead them to a certain room that he only vaguely described. Apparently when Tony was figuring out what she was, he noticed that her body processes sunlight, and he must have figured out that red sunlight affected her. That was what the room was designed to do.

She understood his reasoning, though unspoken, to have a check on her. Something just in case she lost control. Or if she was not as alone as she thought. Just because she understood did not mean she liked it. Especially when Tony felt the need to use it for matchmaking.

"We're not getting out anytime soon, are we?" She asked Steve.

"It's Tony," he answered, giving her one reply from that one moment too long ago.

She smiled, but she thought about the moment she told Logan who (what) she really was. Technically she did tell Steve, but much happened since then.

"You know," she braced herself. "Back at Smallville, I had a boyfriend, named Logan. We grew up together, really close friends, but he did not know the truth about me until I told him when we were dating." Steve listened. It was the first time they really, really went passed that personal wall they built between each other. "He broke up with me after I told him." She noticed his dark look. "Not like that. He still loved me, but he felt like he was holding me back from helping people." She paused. "If we really had time to sit and think, I thought you would make that same realization."

"I would never. . ." Steve said. "When I thought you died, it was terrible." He pulled her closer to him. Maybe he was feeling a little braver, or maybe he just wanted to. "You are one of the few people who saw past what I look like." He told her about a woman, Peggy, from during the war and of their missed date.

"Wait. . .you push me away because you think life will throw you another curveball, and you'll break another woman's heart," Alice remarked, wincing when she realized the implication of "another" could mean.

"Well. you've got this notion that the people around you get hurt because of who you are."

Apparently the two of them had issues letting go of what happened in the past. Maybe locking them in the room with the light patterned off a red sun might have been a good idea. It could force them to live in the present, be in the moment.

"Tony would always say," Alice remembered from cleaning up any mess he made for several months the words he would always say. "Live in the moment."

"I would think that after working for him you would not live by what he says."

"Sometimes that man can be insightful."

* * *

He was late for work again. Reason: he had to stop a car accident, and it was a great way to test out his new webbing. Excuse: alarm clock exploded, making him sleep in. At least he got some pretty great pictures of Spider-Man to make up for the almost two hour delay. He found Mary Jane at her desk, mildly (very) freaked out.

"So I heard the Blur didn't die," she told him. "Why would she think that?"

Peter shrugged. He knew and understood about as much as MJ did at that point.

She eyed him. "How's your Aunt May holding up today."

It was his (late) Uncle Ben's birthday, and the two of them were going to still celebrate it even though he was killed almost a year before.

"As good as you would expect." Peter winced.

That night would always be with him. It was his fault that his uncle was killed. If he stopped that robber (and he did have the abilities to do so), then he would not have killed his uncle. That night opened his eyes. That spider bite gave him some pretty strange abilities, and instead of using them to get rich, he would use them to help people. Too bad people like Jameson loved to make him look like the bad guy.

The next story Jameson had printed told of how he (Spider-Man) orchestrated a mass break-out of criminals the night before, when actually at that moment he was with his aunt trying to have a normal dinner. That woman might actually know his big secret and would keep trying to get him to tell her whenever she could.

At the back of his head he could not help but wonder if something terrible was going to happen that day, or maybe it was just residual guilt eating away at him and messing with his "spidey sense."

Overhead there was the unmistakable image of a flying, green object, and its passenger was in the rather familiar and dread inducing green costume.

* * *

In the end, they stopped talking about the whole before, and decided that the present was what mattered. It was an earth shattering notion for the man out of time and a woman whose past actions could affect her so much. The final moments on the day she had a brush with death did come to mind, though. That final embrace and that kiss were never really forgotten, but the both of them tried to ignore it. The past being painful and all.

Pepper must have taken pity on them because the door was unlocked and the red light removed. They came out of the room to Tony complaining, but Pepper just expertly brushed those complaints off. That woman had to have some kind of superpower being able to get Tony Stark to shut up. The man was disappointed with how his plan went, but two people saw through all that: Darcy who saw herself as almost-sisters with the mild mannered Alice and Bucky who knew Steve since meeting him in a middle of a fight.

Steve and Alice walked back to their apartment building, and they were holding hands. After their exile in the red sunlit room, they refused to let each other go. They were in front of The Daily Bugle, and Steve had her face him. He looked right into her ice-blue eyes, that for once did not televise a certain sorrow, and he summoned up the courage to really tell her what was on his mind, what he really felt.

Then all hell broke loose. . .


	20. Along Came a Spider

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

Then all hell broke loose. . .

Of course the Green Goblin had to make his appearance. Of course! It was supposed to be a quiet day too.

Green Goblin (Norman Osborn, father of his best friend) started chucking his infamous fireballs near where everyone was walking. Peter made a pathetic attempt at an excuse and hid to change into Spider-Man. He swung into the action and created different webs to trap the man, but he managed to evade every time a piece of webbing came near him.

"Okay," he said to himself. "New plan."

Spider-Man started getting people out of harms way. Many of flipped when they saw who their rescuer was, rather taking their chances with the Green Goblin then with Spider-Man.

"Get away from me!" One woman practically screamed into his ear. She thought it was safer to run in the direction of the bombs. One fireball in particular would have landed on her if a red and blue blur had not snatched her to safety.

The Green Goblin left, apparently satisfied with the amount of destruction he caused in that part of the city. He swung after him, even though he would need his webbing for the fight to come. That stuff was always expensive to make, and every new supply went up just as quickly as he could make them.

One of the fireballs was flying at him, but before it could even make contact, a red and blue blur came between him and the fire. Was it. . .no way! No way! The Blur stopped moving and turned to look at him.

"You may not know me. . ." he tried to say, but she rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I do," was all she said. "We need to get the people out from that building." She pointed at the place where the Green Goblin disappeared to. "Quickly." She grabbed his arm, with a surprising amount of strength. "I'll take you there. Once the people are out, we'll deal with. . .your friend."

"You may not know me?" He muttered to himself. "Wow, good one. . ."

Never would he imagine the Blur running with him. Ever since her appearance a couple years ago, he would always wonder. Harry joked that he was a fanboy, but really. What she did was pretty great. It was no wonder when he chose red and blue for his Spider-Man costume. In his mind red and blue were the colors of a great hero, and maybe someday, he could be one too. Now the Blur was helping him with the Green Goblin. Maybe the bomb did hit him, and he was dying on the street.

They were in the building, and half of it was destroyed and ready to collapse. She held the building up as they went along.

"You get the people out, okay?" She told him, when they came to a point where her moving away from holding the ceiling was not a good idea.

"Not a good idea," he countered, noting the glares he was getting. "I'm the menacing Spider-Man, remember?"

She gave him a look. "Is that what you think? I've heard about you from the people you've helped, and every time you did not ask for recognition, either."

"So a small number of people like me, big deal."

"Remember what I said," she said with a wince. "A hero is made in the moment and by the reasons he makes his choice." Nothing. She sighed. "The only thing that matters is what you do."

"Can I be your sidekick?" He asked her before he went and got people out of the building.

He created different web-bridges for some of them to cross, some holes were that big. There were times that he had to take them out of the building himself, wrapping them up in a cocoon and then swinging out with them in tow. It was not that difficult. As always some were hesitant to even be near him, but after a while, it began to dawn on them that their lives were in danger and he was there to help them.

The Blur's words helped a little. From the way she said them, it would have been obvious that she had troubles with trust since no one really knew what she looked like. When the rescuing was done, the Blur met up with him, not even exhausted about the fact that she pretty much held a building up for a good hour or more.

"So who was your friend?" She asked, scanning the city skyline looking for the Green Goblin.

"Green Goblin," Spider-Man answered. "He's Norman Osborn, and when he was trying to design a super-soldier serum for S.H.I.E.L.D. something happened, and he can turn into that." Referring to the green skin and the fireballs. "He tried to kill his family, make it look like he didn't exist anymore, but I stopped him. Trying to get me to fight with him."

"You won't, though." Not a question.

"Someone once told me that with great power comes great responsibility," he replied. "I've learned that the hard way."

"Smart person."

* * *

He had to make the lamest excuse ever. Mary Jane was thinking about her strange relationship with Peter Parker. They practically grew up together as their aunts were neighbors and old friends. She always thought she knew him better than anyone else. That was until a couple years ago.

The death of his uncle changed him, that much she could tell. He was never around when he was needed, and when he did appear, he had the worst excuses ever. Word spread of Spider-Man, another unknown hero of the city, and then he started taking pictures of the masked hero for the Daily Bugle not too long after she started working there.

Always he had the worst excuses for running out of work, for canceling their dates, but they always strangely coincided with appearances of Spider-Man. Mary Jane waited for him to tell her, knowing it would have taken a lot of trust for him to do so.

Of course, the Green Goblin appeared grabbing her, mentioning that if he could not get Spider-Man to help him, he would kill his heart.

* * *

"I see him," she said after looking at the very distant bridge.

"Where?" He asked.

"Not close enough for you to see," she said, lip twitching. "Wait. . .he's got someone. . ."

"Someone?" He was filled with dread. That could mean. . .

"A woman with red hair," she said, turning to him. "Mean anything to you?"

"He told me that if I don't join him, he'd kill everyone I love."

She ran them close to the bridge, and he swung up to where the Green Goblin waited for him. The Blur stayed hidden, waiting to help if he needed her but more as moral support than anything.

"You can't both be a hero and save her," Green Goblin yelled. "You have to choose."

He threw Mary Jane off the bridge and at the same time used his fireballs to knock a cable car. Both were falling, and he just acted. He stabilized the cable car with several shots of webbing, and he had enough time to catch Mary Jane. From the corner of his eye, he could see a red and blue blur saving the passengers of the cable car, and he really asked Mary Jane to run far away from that part of the city.

* * *

Norman Osborn had everything planned out, and it would have been perfect too! Making the boy choose between saving his love or saving bystanders. Too bad he was able to do both. Months of very careful planning went up in smoke.

He was back at his office, but he realized he was not alone. Another man, who happened to be bald, was waiting for him in his chair.

"Norman Osborn," he said in greeting. "I hear you've been having pest problems lately."

"Lex Luthor," was all he said back. It was wise to never make an enemy of that man.

"I can help with that you know," which piqued his interest.

"I'm listening," he said, grinning. "Old friend."

Lex Luthor gave him a careful list of instruction, and none of them seemed too difficult for him to follow. A lead box was handed to him, and ways to find the person most affected by its contents were given.

"We have a little window of opportunity, here," Lex said. "Screw this up and well. . ."

* * *

As the Blur, Alice was running to stop an accident. Before she could even get to the scene, that Green Goblin was floating overhead of her, not throwing fireballs at her, but he held a lead box. From that lead box he pulled out a glowing green knife, and she started to feel a little bit dizzy.

"How does it feel to be so powerful and yet so vulnerable?" the Green Goblin laughed.

He jumped off his glider and stabbed her with the green knife. The knife he left. With the kryptonite still in her system there would be no way for the sun to heal her.

"I better go," the Green Goblin said as he climbed back onto his glider. "Busy schedule and all."

How did some random green villain know about her certain weakness? Norman Osborn. . .Lex Luthor. . .of course. Why at that point and not before?

Her head began to swim, and grey appeared at the edges of her vision. She tried to pull the knife out of her, but her arms felt like they weighed a ton. They could barely flinch. Breathing soon became difficult, coming out only in gasps.

A flash of red and blue appeared at her side. Spider-Man.

"I saw the Green Goblin. . ." his voice trailed off when he saw her bleeding.

"Knife. . .out. . ." she gasped. The sun was setting. Not a good sign for her.

He seemed to have understood what she asked because the knife was pulled (not too gently) out. The sun began to set.

* * *

Steve and Bucky were at the Tower. Mostly so Tony could work on his robotic arm to check for any nasty surprises. Clint would glare at the soldier whenever he was in the same room with him. Probably to blame him for Natasha's sudden "defection." That went on for a couple hours, but Clint decided to let up on his hatred. Maybe Natasha explained something to him.

Alarms began to go off, and they all leaped into action. They were expecting aliens or the Red Skull taking back the Winter Soldier. None of that really happened. It was a man in red and blue swinging through a window carrying a bleeding Alice.

"What did you do?" He heard someone demand the intruder.

"Not me," the intruder answered. "Found her with this in her." He kicked a glowing green knife over to them. "Told me to come here."

Steve grabbed the still bleeding Alice and carried her to the infirmary. Bruce was there, having been alerted by JARVIS on the need of his assistance. Steve gently laid Alice on the empty bed, and he was covered in her blood, enough to make his stomach churn. The intruder was behind them, arguing with Tony.

"Isn't there anything you can do to help her?" Steve could hear the intruder say.

"Not really," Tony replied resignedly. "Can't stitch her up, skin's invulnerable, and it's night. . .JARVIS filter the red sunlight and shine directly on. . .the patient."

"Will do, sir," came the robotic voice from the ceiling.

Bright sunlight shone directly on Alice, and her wound began to slowly close up, and the bleeding stopped. Her gasping breaths became deeper and more regular, and her pale coloring slowly became normal. She rather groggily sat up in the bed and looked around her in confusion.

"You were brought here," Bruce told her as she looked at the intruder, and her eyes widened.

Everyone left the room, leaving Steve with Alice. He sat next to her on the bed and pulled her into a hug, not really wanting to let her go.

"Seeing you like that," he told her. "It was terrible."

He still held her, liking how close she was to him. She turned her head to rest on his shoulder, but she did not fight him when he said that. He pulled her head up and looked into her ice blue eyes, being lost in them for what seemed like hours. Steve leaned in closer to her, and she closed in the gap. Soon, she was in his lap as they were kissing, and she rather gently held the hair at the back of his head. He rather awkwardly rested his hands on her hips, but he still pulled her closer to him.

"I probably should go change," she said after pulling away from him. Both of them were breathing heavily. "Still covered in my blood."

"And?" Steve pulled her into another kiss.

* * *

Spider-Man was on his usual perch watching the city below. the recent Daily Bugle had him working with the Green Goblin in pretty much everything. Before it would have bothered him, but recent events made it easier for him to swallow. There was a gust of wind nearby him.

"Saw the paper," the voice of the Blur told him.

"Yeah. I bet you did."

"Just keep helping people, eventually they will see past what's said in the papers," she told him. "All the people you've helped already think so."

"Only thing that matters is what I do?" She nodded. "I'm going to go web J. Jonah Jameson's mouth shut."

"I don't have a problem with that."

* * *

Lex Luthor was in his office late at night, rather patiently waiting for his new associate to deliver the one thing he needed. Too bad the so-called Blur was still around. It would have made his plans that much more simpler, but he would have to adjust them. Norman Osborn entered his office, rather gently holding a vial of dark liquid. The package he was asked to deliver. Her blood.

"From what you told me, I have a feeling that your plan will be somewhat difficult," Norman said handing him the blood.

"I know what I'm doing," Lex told him. The vial was placed on ice.

* * *

The next worthless gem that was stolen was purple. It was set in a cheap necklace for some young girl, and late one night, it was stolen. Just like the orange gem a couple weeks ago, the thieves vanished into thin air.

Batman's mind was doing somersaults trying to figure out what the second gem had in common with the first. On the surface there was nothing, but that did not mean that there was something about those objects that were once known but long, long forgotten.

"It was like they were hidden," he said aloud to himself. "Someone was trying to keep them separated."


	21. Family Ties

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

Word about Lex Luthor always bothered Tony. It was probably a holdover from back when Tony was still making weapons for the military, and their small (read: bitter and disastrous) rivalry could rival his and Hammer's. Lex was obsessive when it came for him succeeding in some way, and Hammer was just trying to be Tony and doing a terrible job at it, too.

That was why Tony was hacking his files. No matter what security system Luthor would come up with, Tony and JARVIS could easily get past them. One of his recent files really bothered him. It was called "Project Kr," and from what he read, it involved cloning, though the cloning was not stable and certain other measures were done to keep the cloning stable. Further reading really made him sick.

Kr was the symbol for the element krypton, and the cloning involved DNA from Alice. The stabilizing plan involved fusing the Kryptonian with human DNA that belonged to Lex Luthor. It was all to create the perfect weapon. Who needed the Iron Man suits if you had someone who could easily punch holes through pretty much anything?

He knew just the people who could figure more about this project, and luckily this type of thing fit with their job description rather snugly.

* * *

He had been there his whole life, created as one of their experiments. There were certain abilities that he possessed that they had no idea about, so escaping would not have been an issue for him. He stayed. The place was his home, oddly enough. He kept an eye on their recent cloning projects, and he began to wish what was best for them.

One of the most recent of their projects (grew in the span of a few months) interested him. There were plans to make him the world's greatest weapon, but he saw something else entirely. Something that showed the young one would not just blindly follow orders. Interesting.

When two people broke into the labs, he made it easier for them to find the project, practically lead them to it.

"I did not believe Stark when he told me," the woman said when the saw the clone.

"Actually we all think that no one would stoop to this."

"After all we've been through," the woman remarked. "You'd think we would have thought this would happen."

The woman opened the capsule where the clone was kept, and the two of them watched as he woke up.

"I have a bad feeling about this," the man told the woman. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

"You know what she's capable of, and she holds herself back," the woman suggested. "This person could go all out with her powers, and there would be no reason for him to hold back."

The clone slowly woke up. He looked like he was sixteen, and he had the pale coloring of the Kryptonian DNA donor. He fell out of the capsule, and the two older people quickly caught him before he hit the ground.

"For once Stark wasn't joking," the woman muttered.

The clone broke free of their grasp and was about ready to fight them, when he appeared, seeing his chance to better his life.

"Why is there a devil behind you?" the man asked pointing a bow and arrow at him.

"I mean no harm," he said. "I am Dubbilex." His voice was enough to calm the clone down, and he directed his next part of the conversation at him. "While certain information was programmed into you, I slipped in the little I had on your genetic match." The Blur as some would have called her. The clone had a look of awe when he thought of her, which was good. "Unlike the rest of us, you have a choice. Stay here and do what they tell you to do or leave with those two and strive to be like her."

The boy cocked his head to the side, looking like he was thinking. "When are we leaving?"

* * *

Alice stared at the boy that Clint and Natasha lead into the Tower. She knew enough from what Tony told them to not be too surprised at the boy they showed her. She silently cursed out Lex for one of his most recent schemes.

"So," she said in greeting.

"What?" He asked.

"Um. . .got a name, because I don't think I could call you 'boy' all the time."

He flinched, and Alice felt bad for that. "No."

She narrowed her eyes at him, deep in thought. "Give me a moment."

Alice ran back to her apartment and grabbed the old notebook from when she first found out what she was. Back at the Tower, she handed the boy the notebook. He did not take it, just stared at it with a questioning look.

"It explains our heritage," she said.

"Yours."

"Ours." She flipped through to the end of the notebook. "There was one name. . .my grandfather, Kon-El."

"And?"

"I just gave you a name?" Alice retorted. "Or at least a Kryptonian name."

The boy just stared back at her with an expression she could hardly recognize. It made sense. The kid spent however long his life was probably being referred as the project or an it.

"But. . ."

"My birth parents called me Kal-El," she explained, resting an arm across his shoulders. "But the people who raised me called me Alice Kent." She looked at him. "Still working on your other one, though. You still got Kryptonian blood flowing through your veins no matter what your origins are."

* * *

Darcy watched her oldest of friends talking to her clone. Whatever she said really went to the boy, if his expression was anything to go by.

"She accepted him quickly," Bruce remarked.

"It's not his fault," Darcy replied. She knew Alice well enough to know that she would not take her anger out on him just because he was a pawn for someone's madness. "She's the last of her kind. Imagine how she must feel, finding someone like her in the world."

"We'll keep an eye on him, just in case." Tony was behind them. "He was designed as a weapon. Who knows how his programming would kick in?"

* * *

Alice, Steve, and the boy, Conner, arrived at the small farm outside of Smallville. The whole way there, Alice told Conner the different stories from when she was growing up and about her parents. The boy listened to what she said in awed silence, taking in everything she said.

"So," Martha Kent said pulling Steve into a hug. "You must be Steve Rogers. We've heard so much about you."

Steve found it easy to see how Alice was the way she acted. The people who found her in a field and took her in were kind hearted. That much was obvious.

"Lex cloned him using a combination of your DNA," her father, Jonathan Kent, said at the end of her story. "Never trusted that man."

"I was thinking," Alice stumbled through her words. "That he could be a part of the family." Her parents were silent as they thought through her request. "I can't really call him my son. I would've been six if I had him, but maybe brother?" She backpedaled when she saw their faces. "Of course it's up to you, but. . ."

"Conner Kent," Jonathan said, and the boy looked at him, really was not sure what to do.

"Yes?" He said, looking to Alice for support.

"I know you've heard what we were talking about," Martha said. "So how about joining us?"

Conner looked at the woman who asked to be his mother.

"I can help train you, Conner," Alice told him.

The boy did agree, and how could he not? He told them of the unknown information programmed into him about the Blur, and he just met the people who made her what she was.

The next day, Alice was out doing chores with Conner, showing what to do and training him in a way, just like what her father did to her those years ago.

Steve was watching her interaction with her new-found brother. He did hear Jonathan appear to talk to him.

"You're much better for her than I would have thought," he admitted to Steve. "She's been through a lot, and for the longest time we thought she would pull away."

"I've noticed." Alice may have told him the real reason why she moved to New York. Darcy pretty much demanded that to keep an eye on her.

"You ground her," her father remarked. It was almost like someone mentioning he brought out the best in her.

* * *

"They took it?" Lex asked one of his guards. "You let them come in here and take it?"

The guard flinched, knowing that something like that would make his boss incredible upset. Too upset if his calm demeanor was of any indication.

"Do you have any idea how bad it is for us that it's in their hands, now? Or do you not care?"

Lex paced in his office after sending the guard away. It was not ready, but it would do what was necessary right now. Kill her to send a message, and then kill those others. No need for the world's fate be in the hands of freaks, but in his hands. Who would not want that?

"Desmond, turn on its programming."

* * *

Conner clutched at his head. The nervous doctor was talking to him when the prodding pain just pushed the "Conner" aside. He could not control his actions. Someone else was, and he was watching helplessly from the one corner of his mind.

He found Alice not too far from the lab, and he was silently grateful. There was no wonder how much damage he could have done if she was farther. She smiled at him in greeting, and he tried to get himself to stop. Alice had every right to hate him, to throw him out, but she accepted him with open arms and called him brother. She was the one who named him, and he was supposed to kill her.

"Conner?" She asked him when she realized something was off with him. "You're more than just their weapon. You're a person."

He stopped moving and clutched at his head again. She was right. He was not their weapon.

_"You are at your crossroads,"_ the familiar voice of the one called Dubbilex told him. _"Be what they want you to be or be your own person."_

"Come on, Kon," she said, using the other name she gave him. He stopped moving long enough for her to restrain him.

He did not have all the abilities she had yet, so she was still able to keep him from moving. She kept repeating what she said to him over and over to drive it home that he was not their weapon. Not anymore. Her words fought with whatever his programming wanted him to do.

"I won't hurt you," Conner said when her words won. "I don't want to kill my sister."

She smiled and pulled him into a hug. "Good, Kon, good."

* * *

"I don't know how," Bruce told Tony. "But he managed to stop his programming."

"I can give you how," Tony said, looking at the boy talking with Alice. "It's whatever Alice said to him."

Bruce shook his head to clear it. "Darcy told me about her not too long she came here. I couldn't believe it."

"The way she just. . ." Tony replied.

"Yes. The way she just brings out the best in anyone."

Tony read through his research of Alice. "That amount of power, and she just sticks to the shadows helping people. She's too good to be true."

"That's why I felt that Fury should never know about who she really is," Diana told them as she entered their lab.

"Looking at the boy, I can see why."

"Yes, there would be those who wish to exploit her power," Diana agreed. "Which is why she is best out of Fury's reach."

"Do the shadowy duo agree with you?" Tony asked.

"If they know what's good for them, yes," Diana answered. "I'm not from around here, and there is more to me than meets the eye."

"Wonderful," Bruce muttered.

* * *

"Can you even fly, yet?" Conner asked Alice.

"I did once, but I wasn't really in control," Alice admitted. "I've been told that I can, though."

They both walked into LexCorp with only one thing they had in mind. Lex, rather reluctantly, allowed them to come into his office, and he did not seem too surprised to see them both. Alice crossed her arms and refused to say anything, and Conner followed her actions. The silence and the stare down did bother the man.

"Say something," Lex spat at Alice. "Anything."

Alice made not move, just calmly breathed. She would have guessed that Conner would have seen the slight upward tilt in the corners of her mouth, making a small smile. That only bothered Lex even more.

"You have far too much power," he said. "I only had to defend myself." She only quirked an eyebrow. "You ruined every plan I had at the godforsaken town." She went back to her neutral expression. "We could have had the world. My brains. Your powers. No one is as good as you pretend to be. No one."

"For someone who claimed to be one of my friends," Alice finally said. "I guess you don't know me as well as you think. Not everyone wants the world."

With those words, Alice and Conner left his office.

"You stole my son." Lex was clearly referring to Conner.

"You're not my father," Conner said. "I'm a Kent, not a Luthor."

They were outside the building, walking back to Alice's apartment.

"How did you know he'd do that?" Conner asked.

"We were friends, once." Alice answered, shaking her head.

* * *

Steve found Alice sitting in the hallway, staring off into space, and he sat down next to her. Since the sudden appearance of Conner into her life, she would teach him how to control his powers as best she could, or they would act like normal brothers and sisters,where she would show him around the newly rebuilt New York, telling him of the battle that she was on the sidelines for. She did seem a little happier, much like how Steve felt when Bucky came back. For once her eyes did not hold the sorrow of the last of her kind, but they were full of what he would have to say as hope.

"Hey," she said to him after he sat next to her.

"Allie," Steve said. "You accepted Conner so fast."

"It's not his fault that Lex created him," Alice remarked. "Why take it out on him? Besides, in a way he is another of my kind." She paused for a moment. "Always wanted a brother." Her demeanor darkened. "You remember what Loki said before. . .my fight?"

Steve could not help but wince. There was too much about that one sentence that bothered him. Loki knowing so much about Alice. The fight that could have killed her.

"Unfortunately, yes. He said he would help with your 'high flying destiny.'"

"I talked to Thor." Alice said, gently as if trying to calm him down from that memory. "He mentioned that his master freed him."

"Gathered as much."

"And stole an artifact from his father's treasure room."

Steve became more alert. "He never mentioned that."

"I have a feeling that it is more of Asgard's problem," Alice remarked. "Anyway, he needs to gather certain gems to make it complete. Gems that have been scattered across the world. Two have been found."

"What could he use them for?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it can't be good."

* * *

Dubbilex watched Alice spending time with the boy who was named Conner, and he felt a swell of pride. The boy with a great potential was finally living the life that would lead him to greatness. Alice said something which caused the boy to smile.

If Lex Luthor had his way, the boy would have only been out in the world to be a weapon for the highest bidder. Killing mercilessly. A complete opposite of Alice, the one who would refuse to use her powers to kill, no matter who was deserving.

"See what I mean when I said that she was the one we've been waiting for?" a voice said behind him.

It belonged to a man who wore a long coat and a hat that had a shadow cover his face. The man had no known name as far as Dubbilex was concerned, and there was no way for him to enter the man's mind for figure it out. He could just block him out.

"Of course," he said after awhile. "She stopped his programming to kill."

"Yes, yes," the stranger agreed. "It was mentioned that she brings out the best in people. She has done the same to others in her lifetime."

The stranger was gone, and Dubbilex began to feel that the boy was in the good hands of the Kents. They raised Alice right, so the boy would follow. The boy did choose the right road when he came to the crossroads, indeed.

* * *

Alice led Conner into the crystal fortress, explaining how it was made and its purpose. He looked around him in awe, just like she did when it was first created.

"I thought your father died with his world?" Conner asked. He knew the story of their doomed planet.

"An awareness," Alice answered. "All of Jor-El's and Krypton's knowledge in one place."

"Kon-El," the voice of Jor-El filled the room. "It is time to begin the education of your heritage."


	22. Lionheart

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

_A woman, Kelsey Leigh, was busy turning off the lights in her house, talking quietly to her husband as their two children slept soundly in their rooms. For them it started out as a normal night. Of course it could never stay that way. A window shattered, and a large man entered their home, probably to rob them. The why did not matter to the woman. The man had a knife, and her children were close by. When he attacked, she fought back, without really thinking._

* * *

Alice and Steve finally managed to go on a real date. None of those going to coffee or lunch but an actual date where Alice wore a dress. They went out to a fancy restaurant, a recommendation from Pepper. Through the whole dinner, Alice sat close to Steve and he had an arm around her chair and he would talk quietly for only her to hear. She smiled at him and laughed at most of what he said.

Steve noticed that her eyes were, for once after so long, practically sparkling with happiness, and her smile did not hint at sadness. For himself, he actually felt like he was looking forward for the life ahead. As long as she was at his side.

* * *

_Dirk Garthwaite stared at his crowbar at his apartment. He was a former employee of a demolitions crew, but he must have offended his supervisor. . .how was still a mystery to him. The foolish man claimed that he was too violent to be dealt with or his antisocial behavior was just too much. Bah. He took to robbing to get by, but really he reveled in the violence and the fear his victims had for him._

_It was that very fateful day in New York City when the blue sky opened up to space and revealed gigantic, metal space bugs that were intent on destroying the city. Dirk had a run-in with the man in green who hit him with his magic, which did something strange to him. Made him stronger, it seemed like. Before he blacked out, he saw a big blond man with a big hammer fly to the Chrysler Building and use lightning to knock hundreds of those metal bugs out of the sky. That was the sight that would stick with him until his dying day._

_Not too long after that day, he was caught and sent to prison. It turned out the he was not the strong one. Somehow his strength came from his crowbar. Oh how he hated being in that dismal hole._

* * *

Steve and Alice walked back to their building. She had a hold of his arm and rested her head on his arm. Alice felt comfortable with him for once. The fact that he accepted what she was helped her feel that way. The both of them so much during their strange lives. She remembered what Darcy told her that it would never be good to let go of her humanity, and Steve was her hold. If that even made any sense.

They were walking down that familiar hallway, and Alice kept a hold of him. He silently laughed as he unlocked his apartment door, and they both waked in. Steve ran his hands through his hair as he looked into her eyes.

"Allie," he said. "I love you."

* * *

_Kelsey had received a nasty cut down her face which would scar horribly from what she was told. Despite that, she saved her kids from the late-night attacker. Her children never woke up during her fight which was good as far as she was concerned. That night had its own price, though. Her husband, crippled with fear, was not able to help her the way he thought he should have during that struggle. That fear turned later turned to guilt, and the poor man could barely live with himself, dealing with those possibilities of what could have happened._

_Their story book marriage ended two years after that attack. He took to drinking during that time which only made matters worse. Kelsey moved to London, taking her two children with her._

* * *

Alice was waiting for the "but" when he said those words. The same words were said by Logan all those years ago. Steve even had the same look in his eyes that Logan had. Alice's hands slipped from his arm, still waiting for the dreaded "but."

"Allie?" Steve asked, worried.

She shook her head to clear it. "Sorry."

Alice thought for a moment before she told Steve the complete truth of what happened to Logan.

_"I love you, I do, but I feel like I'm holding you back."_

"So, you're waiting for me to say that?" Steve asked. "I need you too much to let you go."

Alice smiled. "Steve. . ." She kissed him. "I love you. too."

* * *

_His name was Brain Braddock, and he lived a very interesting life. While trying to stop a man, he almost dies in a motorcycle accident. Before he died, Brian saw a vision of Merlyn who gave him a choice between an amulet and a sword. Since Brian never saw himself as a fighter, he chose the amulet over the sword. His choice led him into becoming Captain Britain, the defender of the land over anything Morgen Le Faye or others would do to it. For over a decade, he did just that._

_His most recent of battles made him lose his powers when he used them to protect the world from horrific dragons. The loss of his powers allowed him to live through his greatest dream: marrying his love, Meggan, and he lived as normal a life as possible._

_Merlyn came to him to save the world once more. He was given back his powers, and he saved reality. Brian and his love, Meggan, became rulers of the Otherworld. Though he was deep in the Otherworld, his ties to the land of Britain remained as strong as ever. To destroy one would be to destroy the other._

* * *

They were kissing, and she was holding onto him tightly. She had her back against a wall, and he peppered kisses down her neck. He pulled her closer to him, and they remained close.

* * *

_His name was Henry Camp, and once time in his life, he was a sergeant in the Army before he was dishonorably discharged. that did ruin his life, slightly, and that was how he was in prison with Dirk Garthwaite and they became acquaintances._

_He heard the strange stories of the man's magical crowbar and would have thought he was crazy if he had heard of the man before he was sent to prison. They began talking of what they would do if they got out of prison, and that was when a certain doctor called Eliot Franklin came to them. The good doctor broke them out of prison and got the magical crowbar for Dirk._

_"We could share the power," Dr. Franklin said, leading to an undisclosed outside location during a thunderstorm._

_Dirk was silent as he thought. "Fine, but I'll be the leader."_

_All three of them laid their hands on the crowbar as the lightning struck them, and their lives were never the same after that. They were much stronger than the average person._

_Such was the beginning of the Wrecking Crew._

* * *

Diana came into the meeting with three very thick files. London was in an uproar, and there was a perfect job for the Avengers. Three pictures of the three assailants were shown to the seven (Black Panther invited himself onto the team, much to Fury's annoyance) people.

A former demolition man. . .a former Army man. . .a disgraced scientist. . .

They were stronger than even Thor, and each one was using demolition-like tools as weapons. The scientist, known as Thunderball, used a demolition ball on a chain that he slung around with skill. The Army man, Bulldozer, wore an armored helmet that he used to ram into other people and objects. The former demolition man, Wrecker, had an indestructible crowbar that brought to mind Thor's hammer. They all looked as Thor, who watched what happened in confusion.

"I did not know of their existence until this moment," he said.

"They'll wreck London if you don't intervene," Diana finished, still playing the footage.

When the Avengers left, Diana grabbed a hold of Alice's arm with a strength that most people would not have known from her.

"We'll be there," she said. "Unknown and unseen. Helping move the civilians to safety."

Alice was going to argue. She would be there to help them, but Diana cut her off.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. does not really know about the two of us. It would be better if that stays that way."

Diana put on metal bracelets and grabbed a length of rope.

* * *

_Morgen Le Faye watched humans walking the streets of London and shook her head. Britain has always been the constant thorn in her side, and not matter what she did, that land still remained. Mostly, it was the constant reminder of Captain Britain. Bleh. That name. . .she clenched her fists._

_She thought of a plan that would remove both problems for her. Captain Britain being removed and the destruction of the land he protects. Kill the human fool and sever his ties to the land._

_Morgen appeared to an angered and simple scientist and planted the beginnings of a plan that would bring ruin to London and call forth the mortal fool to his death. All she had to do was sit back and watch the interesting scene to play out before her._

* * *

Alice and Diana save civilians from the wrecked buildings. No one really saw the faces of the two women, but her symbol was known and trusted even far across the ocean. From the corner of her eye, she saw Steve, Natasha, and Black Panther back-to-back fighting the man twirling a wrecking ball around.

A building began to shake, and Alice ran to keep it from collapsing. More civilians escaped with the help of Diana. She was able to see the three Avengers get knocked to the ground. Thunderball stood over the three of them, and he laughed.

"Earth's Mightiest Heroes?" He bellowed as he laughed.

Hawkeye was too high-up to get to them, and he was out of arrows. Thor simultaneously fought Wrecker and keeping the Hulk in line while Tony was busy with Bulldozer. The three of them were unconscious, and Steve's shield was too far away. A woman took of the shield and ran her way to the fallen heroes. She held the shield between the fallen Avengers and Thunderball, taking each blow. Not once did she let the shield fall.

Soon, Alice was able to let go of the building, and she ran at Thunderball and punched him, knocking him out.

The woman who took up the shield collapsed to the ground.

* * *

_"Right arm shattered. . .brain damage. . .collapsed lungs. . .the shock from the blows. . .time of death. . ."_

_Kelsey remembered hugging her children right before grabbing the shield and putting herself in between the three heroes and the crazed man who would have killed them. Her final thoughts were on her children as she blacked out._

_She woke to a circle of stones and two strange images were before her. A man and a woman in flowing green robes, and they were almost transparent. The man spoke to her, telling her that her brave and selfless act gave her a choice at a second chance at life. Provided she would be the guardian after him. All she had to choose between an amulet and a sword. To protect her children, she chose the Sword of Might. Her ties to her homeland were strengthened._

* * *

Alice and the others tried to remove the injured from the scene, but they were trapped by an appearance of a tall woman with elf-like features and black hair. she controlled magic around them, causing Alice almost to black out.

Another woman appeared, in all blue with the British flag designed mask, and she carried a mighty sword. Using her x-ray vision, Alice saw that the woman was the same who gave her life to protect the three fallen heroes. She fought the first woman while she created a shield around the others.

"No! It can't be!" The first woman wailed. "This isn't supposed to happen!" The woman vanished, her wailing still could be heard.

Alice walked over to the second woman, grateful for her previous act and in awe over the fact that she gave her life to protect strangers. Their eyes met, and both nodded to the other acknowledgement. They understood each other.


	23. World's Finest

A/N: Please read and review! Loosely based on Superman: TAS Word's Finest.

* * *

Two people appeared to the antique dealership late at night.

"We're closed," the owner said.

"Not a problem for me," a shrieking voice laughed as he sprayed a certain gas into the man's face.

The store's owner started laughing uncontrollably and collapsed to the ground. The two strangers were an odd pair. They wore brightly colored clothing and clown make-up, and they both had crime down to a science. Recent years have been a hassle for the two of them. The flying rat and his rodent sidekick kept breaking apart their business ventures.

"Puddin'," the woman drawled as the man walked over to the display case that held a green intricately carved dragon. "That's so you."

The man broke the case and pulled the dragon up. He placed in in the lead box she carried, and they walked out.

"Offly nice doing business with you," he told the still laughing store owner. "Tah. What a pleasant fellow."

* * *

"It's weird," a police detective remarked looking around the still full store. "All this junk, and the Joker only takes one lousy statue."

"Especially when word on the streets is that he's desperate for cash these days," the commissioner agreed.

"Things are never what they seem with the Joker," a dark voice came from the shadows.

It belonged to the man in all black with a cowl that covered his face. Even though he was on their side, each man felt a sense of fear at the appearance of Batman.

"I guess the night brings out all the wackos," the detective tried to cover his fear with condescending bravado.

Batman ignored him and looked at the display case rather closely, discreetly taking a sample of what was left of the statue. He noticed something different and very important about the sample.

"It's made of jade," the commissioner explained. "Worth maybe a hundred grand."

"I'd like a closer look," Batman said.

He stalked out of the shop without even a backward glance.

"Hey!" the detective yelled at the commissioner. "He can't leave a crime scene with evidence!"

"You wanna stop him?" the commissioner asked, resting a hand on the other man's shoulder. "Be my guest."

The detective looked around the shop. Batman vanished into thin air.

* * *

He was back at the cave and ran an analysis of the "jade" piece.

"According to this," Alfred said, walking into the cave and carrying a book. "The Laughing Dragon has quite a foreboding reputation. Ever since it was carved in China, thirty years ago, it has passed through several owners. All who died prematurely."

"And I can tell you why," he said. "This so-called jade is emitting low level radiation." He put the sample back into its bag. "I assume Tony Stark wants to make that deal with Bruce Wayne."

"Do you think that this is an appropriate time?"

"I'd say the timing couldn't be better."

* * *

Alice and Darcy were at the cafe below Stark Tower, and the former was stuck listening to Darcy venting about visiting her parents again.

"Seriously," Darcy said without even taking a breath. "That woman had the guts to say she didn't approve of Bruce. Right in front of him! She wants to set me up with someone. A nice lawyer."

Alice winced for her friend. "She doesn't really know Bruce."

"And she won't even bother to," Darcy snapped and took a sip of her coffee.

"Your mother wants what's best for you," Alice defended the woman.

"No. For her," Darcy replied. "No prestige in having the world's leading expert in gamma radiation and Avenger as a son-in-law."

Alice shook her head. There was a reason why Darcy disliked visiting her home so much. Her mother constantly criticized the young woman and derided her life choices. She looked up above and saw a helicopter land at the top.

"What's happening?" She asked.

Darcy shrugged, and Alice's phone went off.

"Kent do the story on the deal between Stark and Wayne," Jameson barked into her ear.

* * *

He was pacing around his office, getting more angry by the moment. It fell apart. All of it. The careful planning. The money spent. And for what? So the homeless alien could get a new brother? In a fit of desperation, he called in a mad man to help. In hind sight, it probably would not be the wisest course of action, but it would be enough to get the job done. His phone went off, and he answered it.

"You got it? Good. Now, keep my name out of it," he said to the mad man very patiently. "An extra ten million? fine, but I have to be completely clear or you won't see that extra dime. Do not mess this up."

* * *

Pepper was in the middle of explaining the Arc Reaktor to Bruce Wayne, when an exhausted looking Tony Stark broke their conversation.

"We started an hour ago, Tony," Pepper said, almost out of habit.

"You know me, never on time."

Tony did notice that despite what was read about Bruce Wayne, he did understand what they were talking about. He was acting the fool.

Alice was being dragged through the Tower, from what Tony saw out of the corner of his eye, which was interesting the lengths she went to appear normal and mild mannered. Oddly enough, he agreed with the deal, and Tony felt a sense of satisfaction. He did what Obie and his father could not do: make a deal with a Wayne.

At the end of the deal, Alice immediately went to talk to both Pepper and Bruce. The deal was her pet project.

* * *

In an out-of-the-way place, a meeting of a sort was taking place. They were enjoying what little freedom they currently possessed during the lull in Spider-Man's activity and the almost recent dip in the strange appearances by the Blur. The door banged open.

"Ceasar, my old pal," the Joker called into the room. "Why, I haven't seen you since. . .wait! I've seen you, have I? You need to get out more."

"Who is this clown?" Ceasar demanded.

"Not clown," Joker answered with a menacing smile on his face. He pulled out a playing card. "Joker." He tossed the card at their table, and it stuck to the surface. "I'm in town on business, and I need a place to hang my hat."

"Try the Motel nine."

"It would be so much cozier at your place. Like a sleepover." He started laughing.

"Are you nuts? Kill him!"

Everyone pulled out their guns and aimed them at the Joker.

"Oh!" Another voice filled the room. She came in on pogo stick. "Can I play too?"

She landed on each man, dodging their bullets and knocking them out. Ceasar tired to escape, but he walked into the Joker.

"All that spicy food," he said, grabbing a hold of his arm. "You look a little gassy."

Joker sprayed a gas into the man's face. The coughing switched to nonstop laughter. Joker and Harley dragged the man out of the building.

"Adios, muchacho," Joker said in farewell. He turned to the rest of the men. "Holy guacamole. Look's like you need a new leader. I nominate me." The unstoppable could still be heard.

"I second the nomination," Harley said, pointing two large guns at the men.

"All oppose?"

* * *

Natasha was at the mental hospital, staring at the man who could not stop laughing.

"They found him like this," Maria Hill explained. "No change. We don't even know who did this."

"I have an idea," Natasha remarked. "He's telling us right now."

* * *

A criminal was in the middle of making a deal when the being form his worst nightmares dropped to the ground in front of him.

"Where's the Joker?" The gruff voice of Batman asked.

"I don't know!" The man answered, being lifted from the ground by the shirt. "Making ha-ha with Harley Quinn."

"Losing my patience."

A strange breeze appeared, and a voice from the shadows broke the silent fear. "I think he already answered your question."

Batman dropped the man and pulled out the small green shard and showed it to her. She collapsed to the ground as the criminal ran off, though Batman knew where he would run off to. She was clutching her chest and turning very pale.

"Doesn't take much, does it?" He put the shard back into his utility belt. "Just so you know, the Joker's got much more where that came from."

* * *

Darcy came into the apartment she shared with Alice, turning on the lights.

"You're an interesting sight," a voice said inside the apartment. "I don't see how the Blur would always be so worried about you, but really? No one knows her."

Everything went dark.

* * *

Alice came back to her apartment, but there was Steve and Bruce impatiently waiting for her.

"What's wrong?" Alice asked, noticing the looks on their faces.

"Darcy's been taken," Steve answered when Bruce refused to even speak.

The scientist covered his eyes to keep them from seeing them turn green. His anger was so bad.

From inside the apartment came Diana's calm and collected voice. "Taken by someone who left this." She walked out and gave Alice a Joker playing card. On the back there was written an address and a short note.

"To find your best friend, come here. Alone, Blurry Girl. Wouldn't want your friend to suffer, do we?"

She cried. Her oldest and closest of friends was taken because of her. Taken by a madman at that. There was nothing that he would not do to her. She felt Steve's arms folding around her.

"I'll get her back," she promised way too calmly.

Hours later, she was sitting on the top of the building, looking down at the street below her as she played with the Joker card. How did that clown know?

"That address is one of the Lex Luthor's buildings," came a gruff voice.

"She ripped the card in two. Of course.

"Let's go," she spat.

"That's what he wants," Batman said.

"He's got her!"

"With the Joker, expect the unexpected."

* * *

Darcy regained consciousness in some empty building and tied to a chair. There was the clown and his girlfriend practically prancing around her.

"I hope the Blurry Girl would appear," the clown shrieked at her. "Means more work for me and less of a mess for Harley, here."

He ran a hand across the lead box, and Darcy instinctively knew what it held and what it meant. She was really hoping that would let someone else would save her because if she appeared, otherwise her life would be cut short.

She knew that Alice was in the building. There was a certain sound that the other woman would make that only Darcy would recognize.

"No, no," she whispered to herself.

Alice appeared out of nowhere to save Darcy, but the clown opened the lead box. She collapsed to the ground. The clown tied her to Darcy and placed a kryptonite dragon nearby her.

"You're not looking too good," the clown remarked, smirking. "Love to help you out, but I have places to be, and people to meet. That sorta thing."

They were left tied up in the old building. One whose life was in the balance.

* * *

Alice vaguely remembered Diana and Batman coming into the room. The dragon was put back into the box, and they were untied. It was when she was outside and far away from the cursed dragon.

"Lex was working with him," Darcy whispered to Alice. "That's how he knew."

It was a slap to Alice's face. She knew that Lex would do anything to get what he wanted but working with a known mad man who had no qualms about killing large numbers of people.

"It's his building," Alice said, after awhile.

Darcy was sitting with Bruce, talking to him quietly and calmly that seemed to help him calm down. At least his eyes were not green.

* * *

He was staring at the city below him. He got word that his partner had failed. Miserably, and it was only a matter of time before they would come after him. Despite the fact she was a freak of nature, she was smart enough to connect the dots.

"I told you to keep my name out of this," he said to the other man in the room. "I'm beginning to see why the mere mortal in a Halloween costume could beat you."

"There's nothing mere about the Batmortal," Joker said very dangerously.

Harley pulled out her two large guns and pointed them at Lex. It became pretty obvious that the old saying that there is no honor among thieves.

"I've heard about some of your recent projects," he laughed. "I'm going to put a smile on this city!"

* * *

Alice stared at the lead box that possessed the dragon.

"Keep it," she said to Batman. "I know you'll use it if you have to."

"What about the others? You spend more time with them."

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s too involved in their lives. It's probably for the best. Fury, I don't trust."

Nightwing appeared with unsettling news. Joker got a hold of some of Luthor's technology and planned to ruin most of Manhattan. The two of them were joined in the single fight with Joker. It was the strange S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons designed to handle threats from beyond. How Luthor got his hands on them was a mystery. She moved people out of way of the weapons, and he managed to make sure the weapons never worked again. He and Nightwing designed a virus that affected the weapons.

Luthor was a hostage at that point, so his plan to get rid of Alice could not be pinned on him even if they tried. Alice saved him, and Joker was dealt with by Batman.

* * *

She finally went back to Loki, and she did not come alone. Batman was there to read Loki when she talked to him.

"Here I thought you forgot about me," Loki said, smirking at her.

The other Avengers managed to distract S.H.I.E.L.D. long enough for the interrogation to take place.

"Of course you need some information from. The strange thefts and their significance," Loki said. "Worthless gems as far as you humans would see."

He said nothing after that, just spent most of it mocking Alice and the rest of mankind. Loki started laughing, and a terrible pain came to her head, and Alice fell to the ground.


	24. Watchtower Cometh

A/N: Please Read and review!

* * *

Steve watched in horror as Alice fell to the ground. He ran into the room and cradled to him. Her breathing was shallow and ragged, and blood was coming out of her nose. Loki's laughter almost made him snap. It had to have been his fault, and he seemed to revel in it.

"Your greatest hero is so weak," he said. "Pathetic."

He rushed her to the medical room and placed her on the bed.

"He did not expect that to happen," the gruff voice belonging to Batman said. "He's worried."

"How is that supposed to help me?"

Darcy was hovering outside the room, and she was on Alice's phone.

"It's pretty bad. They have no idea how that happened," she said to the man on the other end of the line. "I think someone's messing with her head."

Steve was still by her side, and she was only getting worse. Her nosebleed was still going strong, and she would occasionally make noises of pain. No one had a clue of what happened to her and how to help her.

"As far as we know," Bruce said. "She should be fine." There was a scream of pain coming from Alice.

"Couldn't you give her something to ease the pain?" Steve demanded.

"Needles can't go through her skin," he answered, calmly. "Tony's trying to design a needle that would work, but it's taking time."

Darcy came into the room, leading an older man over to Alice. Steve could recognize him as her father's old friend, John Jones. John placed a hand on either side of her head. His eyes were closed in concentration.

"Someone is purposely trying to keep her down," he said.

* * *

Alice was stuck in darkness, and she could feel someone attacking her. There was no way she could fight back, and she felt like she was made of lead. Her arms and legs would not move. She could hear a dark laughter belonging someone who was very pleased that she was so weak.

"Be gone!" A very familiar voice yelled. "Be gone!"

The other awareness yelled in pain and anger as the light spread from her father's old friend and surrounded around her. She light, and the pain was gone. Alice could move again, and her eyes opened to see a very worried looking Steve clutching her hand.

"What. . .?" She said so weakly.

"Someone was messing with your head," came Darcy's voice.

Alice tried to sit up, but she felt lightheaded. "Loki?"

"No," John answered.

"You can't be sure of that," Steve replied.

John shook his head. "It was someone far older and far. . ." He was struggling to find the right words. "Obsessing about Death."

"Thanos?" Thor remarked. "He does not have that. . ."

"The gems," Alice said. "It has to be the gems he's stealing."

There was an uneasy silence that filled the room. The enormity of the situation hit them. This was not some petty thieves stealing technology that was far beyond what they could understand. It was far too serious. They had no idea what type of power their new enemy would have.

"So what do we do against someone with that power?" Bruce asked Thor.

"I do not know," the Thunder God admitted. "There was a reason why the Gauntlet was separated from the gems."

Natasha came back to the Tower, and she had terrible news. Fury had word from the Council that the Avengers were to not get involved with the Thanos issue. Their reasoning was that he had made no direct threat to Earth, and more importantly to themselves.

"Fury said that they are having tails on us," Natasha finished. "Our hands are tied."

That angered Thor. "Do they not know what would happen if he possessed its full power?"

"These are the same people who called the missile," Bruce remarked as if that was the answer for anything. Sadly, it was.

Natasha shrugged, and the Avengers left the room, arguing over what had happened. Diana, Alice, and John remained. Oddly enough, Alice's phone went off.

* * *

Her name was Skye, and she was working to figure out what was going on in the world around her. Strange things have happened around the world in the past several years. People from different times, different worlds, and all hanging around. Interesting people being taken in by a super secret group.

There were people, though, who managed to keep themselves hidden and unknown. All she had to do was look through the papers to find people speculating the identity of the Blur or Batman. The fact that they were still out in the open proved that the government group was not there to restrain them. She had a list of people who had no ties to that group, and an interesting idea came to mind. Maybe it had a lot to do with the group of remarkable people who was active before she was even born. They were called the Justice Society of America, but they mysteriously stopped.

She wrote down a vague list of those unknown remarkable people, and she managed to get a hold of one of them. Somehow. It was a feat that even surprised herself, and she was a hacker.

The five of them appeared at their own time, and it was almost nerve wracking to be in the same place as some powerhouses. She laid out to them her crazy plan. It was the mysterious Blur who agreed with her, and it was the voice from the shadows who reluctantly promised to find still others.

It actually worked.

* * *

Steve found Alice staring out his window. He walked over to her and pulled her to him. They did not really talk, no need to. The news of the Avengers being stonewalled on dealing with whatever Thanos would throw at them, which he would, deeply bothered the two of them. Did they not want to live?

"They have no idea," Steve remarked, looking at the people walking through New York on a normal day.

She clenched her fists and relaxed when Steve kissed her temple.

* * *

Skye came back to her apartment after grocery shopping. Someone was waiting for her.

"I have noticed how busy you've been lately," he said, calmly. "Not that there's a problem with that." He handed her a box full of old video tapes and dusty files. "You may be the sanest person I'm dealing with, at the moment."

Back inside her apartment, she flipped through the old files and watched the old tapes, and they were all about the Justice Society. Each one explained how the members were falsely imprisoned by trumped up charges because they refused to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. The Avengers being the agency's project made more sense.

Her laptop did not work, and the street lights around her went out.

"What the -" She said as a bright light appeared next to her.

It came from a staff held by an older man. Someone from the old files she read.

"Who are you?" Skye asked.

"My name is Sylvester Permberton," he answered. "You and I share something in common. Both trying to put a team together."


	25. Society

A/N: Please read and review! Based off the Smallville episodes Absolute Justice.

* * *

What he said made Skye freak out a little, but she tried not to show it. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're the one they call Watchtower." It was not a question.

"Watchtower?"

"Technology today makes hiding so much harder," he replied. "When someone is plugged into so many sources, someone is bound to pull it out and follow it back to its source." He walked closer to her. "You're lucky a friend did it first."

"Friend? Friends don't sneak up on each other in a dark alley." She felt an arctic wind around her, really not something one would expect in June. "Is it just me, or did it get really cold all of a sudden?"

Sylvester looked worried, and he hid her. "Stay down."

He ran down the street, and she could faintly see him fighting another man. The flashes of light showed ice flying around, but she really could not see the full detail of what was happening. One thing for sure, though, she could hear him yelling in pain. Then, nothing.

She ran over to the man lying on the ground. He looked like he had been stabbed, and he looked like he suffered a winter storm. Sylvester was still struggling to breathe.

"Help!" she yelled. "Somebody help!"

He grabbed a hold of her arm, finding his words. "They came after us. They'll come after all of you." The man gave his final struggled breath, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

* * *

Alice and Peter had to go to the hospital to cover a story. Jamseson was under the impression that the most recent death was part of a string of a couple equally bizarre deaths. He thought it was the work of a serial killer, but it was coming from the man who liked to write that certain heroes were menacing New York.

In the hospital, she heard a doctor talking to John about what was found with the victim. In her hands was a blue outfit with white stars all over it.

"Who was that guy?" Peter asked, going to take the picture, but Alice placed a hand on his camera to get him to stop.

"No!" A girl was yelling when another doctor was talking to her. "What do you mean? He can't be dead!"

An officer was about to comfort her, but she walked away from them, trying to fight her tears. She walked past Alice.

"Are you alright?" She asked her.

The girl turned to her. "My friend was murdered."

"I'm sorry."

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"You want to sit down?" Alice suggested.

The girl stared at the press badge that was clipped to her jacket, and her tears turned to anger.

"What is wrong with you people?" She demanded, backing away from Alice.

"Us people?" Alice was confused.

"The press," the girl snapped back, walking quickly away. Alice scrambled after her. "Haven't you vultures done enough to Sylvester?"

"I wasn't looking for a quote. I -"

The girl turned to her. "Just stay the hell away from me." She stormed away after giving Alice a final glare.

"What was that drama about?" Peter asked.

"She obviously has a problem with reporters," Alice answered. "She's friends with the man who died, the Sylvester Pemberton."

* * *

"He knew about Watchtower," Skye explained to the strange group in front of her. "He wore some kind of strange uniform, had a weapon that could control light, and he was killed by ice from someone - something." She paused. "I know that you're all busy with the coming end of the world, but this is something you need to do." She looked through the records she got a hold of. "His final phone call lasted thirty minutes. It was with a guy named Wesley Dodds."

"I'll check it out," the Blur volunteered, getting a hold of the address.

* * *

A man was sleeping in his cluttered apartment. That was how he saw the murder of his old friend. The killer was like someone from their collective pasts. Someone he did not expect to be out and about. He jumped awake when he witnessed the killing blow of his old friend. His alarm clock was going off, and he took a sip of his room temperature coffee. What he dreamed really bothered him.

His name was Wesley Dodds, and dreams were his thing. Or at least they were. It had been awhile since he used that skill to help people.

He got out of his chair and carefully made his way to his old costume. The eyes of the gas mask staring blankly back at him. Without really thinking about it, he took the old mask and put it on. The thing still fit even after all those years. He was back in his old costume.

"You dreamed about me, didn't you Mr. Dodds?" A young voice said behind him. It was the killer from his dreams. "That's what you do. You dream about killers." His voice was bitter and full of hate towards the end. "It's time for the Sandman to have a good. . .night. . .sleep." The last three words brought ice around Wesley's face, killing him.

* * *

When she was gone, they looked through the records of the man that Skye found.

"His name was Sylvester Pemberton, and he had a long criminal record. Fraud. Embezzlement. Assault. He didn't have any family, but he did have a friend show up at the hospital."

She showed the I.D. of the young woman who was distraught over Pemberton's death.

"Courtney Whitmore. Sophomore at Midtown High. She hasn't been to school in the last three weeks."

"What about that glowing staff? What do you know about it?" The gruff voice belonging to Batman asked.

"It's in police custody, and we need need to get it," Skye answered, looking at the evidence picture of the glowing stick she saw the night before.

"We meaning me?" A woman's voice remarked.

"If it's not too much trouble."

* * *

Alice opened the slightly frozen door to Wesley Dodds' apartment. She could hear the ticking clocks, and some of them were smashed on the floor.

"Hello?" She called through the cluttered apartment. "Mr. Dodds?"

A table had both ticking clocks and many, many coffee thermoses. The old television had blood running down its screen, and she saw the feet of what she assumed to be Wesley. She walked over to the man on the ground. He was in a strange costume, but the iced over stab wounds were still obvious. Sylvester's killer struck again.

* * *

John walked into the morgue after he received word of the second killing.

"No bullet holes," the medical examiner explained, covering Wesley's face with a white sheet. "Just residual ice."

"Done with some kind of ice weapon?" He asked, walking around the body.

"Weapon's more a 'who' than a 'what.' The ice we pulled from the first victim had human DNA. He's had interesting taste in victims. The person who found this man said that the killer left the letters 'JSA.' Any idea what that means?"

"A calling card. He has a score to settle," John said more to himself.

* * *

A young man full of hate and bitter anger was laying out different pictures of the people who so ruined his life. It was a strange list of people who had no obvious connection to each other and to him, but it was still there. He took out a red marker and began to cross out three pictures. The three he killed.

* * *

Alice flipped through the files that Skye gave to her, and Diana and Batman helped her. It was the whole JSA connection that seemed to have bothered the young computer hacker, so an old box was left with them.

"Sylvester worked with twelve other known criminals," Alice said after awhile. "Including Wesely Dodds."

"Nothing is as it seems," Batman, Bruce, replied, taking some of the other files from her.

"Skye said that he mentioned bringing a team back together," Bruce remarked.

"That means they were broke apart, at some point."

Alice pulled out an old video tape from the box. They played the tape.

"They were systematically caught and taken down," Diana said.

"For what?" Alice asked.

"Crimes don't match who they are," Bruce remarked.

The first of the team was a young man with long hair. Two cops were leading him down a flight of stairs. Photographers and reporters swarmed the three of them.

"Sylvester Pemberton," Diana said. "Accused of embezzling from his own company."

The next clip showed cops trying to control a riot taking place with tear gas. A grief stricken man was holding an unconscious woman.

"Wesley Dodds," Diana continued.

"International business. No prior record," Bruce said.

"Arrested at a student demonstration that turned violent," Diana explained. "The young woman was killed."

The third clip was a man wearing a black mask in the middle of the street. He was taken down, cuffs being put on him, when his mask was removed.

"Al Pratt," Diana explained. "Physics professor. Arrested for assaulting police officers when they went after Dodds."

It was the third clip that bothered Bruce. It showed an old gym, and a young man was punching a bag.

_"There he is!"_ came yelling from the clip as cops ran into the gym to arrest the young man. It took four officers to drag the struggling boxer out of the gym.

"Wait," Alice said. "I think I've heard of that guy. That's Ted Grant. A heavy weight champion. How is he involved with these guys?"

Bruce shook his head. "He trained me. That man was no criminal."

The next clip showed a man in his lab. He wore a long white coat, and the cops appeared.

"Jay Garrick," Diana explained. "A research scientist. Fraud."

The next clip showed a man behind bars. He had a strong grip around a bar, and one of his hands had a strangely lantern shaped ring on his finger.

"Alan Scott?" Alice asked, shocked and confused. "CEO of a broadcasting company?"

"Arrested for aiding and abetting," Diana replied.

"They have no connections besides the arrests," Alice remarked. "They don't even sound like criminals."

The next clip showed an older woman cooking in her kitchen. She was yelling as the cops took her out of her house. One of them looked at her in confusion.

"Abigail Hunkel," Alice remarked. "Really struck fear in the hearts of those cops."

"Strange," Bruce remarked, taking the arrest records. "Each one tried to take the fall for the others. Trying to protect one another."

"Honor among thieves," Alice agreed.

"This goes beyond honor," Bruce countered. "Missing witnesses, circumstantial evidence, jury tampering."

"They stood by each other and in the end, none of the convictions held up," Alice remarked.

"Sounds to me like you admire them," Bruce said, still watching the tape.

"I admire loyalty."

It was the next clip that showed a man being taken in a straight jacket, his wife yelling at the people taking him. Cops were restraining her.

"Wait a minute," Alice said. "I know him. That's Dr. Nelson."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted his services," Diana explained.

"I don't think they wanted him for his psychology degree," Bruce commented.

"You're right," Diana agreed. "It's got S.H.I.E.L.D. all over it."

Skye appeared. "One of you has to warn Carter Hall. He was the next name on Pemberton's call list. Called him over a dozen times in the last two days."

There was a clip of a man at a museum fighting off the cops.

"I'll go," Alice said, reluctantly. "Something tells me that he could handle himself."

* * *

Steve went back to talk to Kent Nelson, which he still did every once in a while. Fury wanted to make sure he was handling his new twenty-first century life. He mainly just gave short progress reports about how he was adjusting and how his flashbacks and nightmares were being dealt with.

He came into the office to find the doctor zipping up an old bag. The older man looked very worried and full of sadness. On his desk were some newspapers that explained the strange deaths.

"Doctor?" Steve asked.

"Steve," the man said, setting the bag back on his desk. "How have things been?"

"Better," Steve answered.

The doctor actually smiles. It was a weak smile, but he did look happy that his patient was doing well in the new life that was thrown at him. The man's cell phone went off, and when he checked it, he grabbed his bag.

"Next week, right?" He said before leaving the room.

Steve noticed that the newspaper articles had "Icicle" written in the margins and the letters "JSA" were circled several times.

* * *

Alice ran to the strange museum that Carter Hall worked at. It was an old brownstone house, and it really did look like it had seen better days on the inside. It was dusty and full of cobwebs.

"Museum is closed," a voice said. "Permanently."

"The door was open," Alice replied.

"Wasn't supposed to be."

"Mr. Hall? I'm Alice Kent, Daily Bugle." She went over to shake his hand. He just stared at it, so she lowered her arm.

"What do you want?"

"I came by to talk to you about your friends. Sylvester Pemberton. Wesley Dodds. Al Pratt. They were murdered"

"I haven't spoken to Pemberton or Dodds in years. Never seen Pratt for almost as long."

"Sylvester called your phone several times within the last few days."

"I didn't answer."

"Mr. Hall I understand you'd be reluctant to talk to the police given your past, but I think - "

"You don't know anything about my past, kid," Carter interrupted her.

The front door opened, and a clean cut and exhausted man came in carrying an old bag, and he was rather worriedly muttering to himself.

She remembered him. The man who came to her school after that dreaded second meteor shower that happened during the graduation ceremony as a psychiatrist to help deal with the mental trauma of that, and the man that Fury lined up to talk with Steve. Alice used her x-ray vision to look into the bag, and there was the helmet of the strange man she met that summer. It turned to look at her, and its eyes glowed gold.

"I have nothing else to say," Carter dismissed her, and she left.

"He said that she could help," Kent said.

"We only help ourselves, Nelson," Carter replied. "Like we always had to."

"Maybe. . .not," Kent said. "Maybe not."

* * *

"Pemberton's glow stick is MIA," Diana said.

"We have to get that," Bruce replied.

Diana saw a blonde young woman holding the very stick she needed. "Call you back." She ran over to the young woman. "Excuse me, Miss Whitmore."

The young woman turned to look at her with fear. "Do I know you?"

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say that golden rod doesn't belong to you."

Courtney laughed. "Well, it belongs to me now."

"I don't want to get the police involved."

Courtney turned to her and pointed the staff at her. "Come any closer. . ."

"Three people were murdered, including a friend of yours," Diana said, remaining as cool as ever.

"Three?" Courtney asked. The news really bothered her.

"You need to answer some of my questions," Diana continued.

Courtney looked like she really wanted to help her, but she shook her head.

"We help ourselves," she said and vanished in a flash of golden light.

* * *

Dick was sent to pick the lock of a dead man's car to look for more clues to Sylvester Pemberton. It was an old car that if it belonged to him, he would have been ashamed to be seen driving it, and the licence plates read "Star." All he had to do was open the door, no need to pick the lock.

"Star Rocket Racer," he read from the glove compartment. "Really?"

He opened the glove compartment and found an old notebook. When he opened the book, he found entries that were almost like profiles. There were their pictures with their secret names. Alice. Bruce. Diana. A Hal Jordan. A John Jones. A Barry Allen. There were other entries because he found one on himself and Oracle as well as others from across the country.

"He knew about us," he said into his com link. "He knew our identities."

* * *

"You shouldn't have come," Carter said to the blonde young woman. "Sylvester's sidekick shouldn't be involved."

"I'm not his sidekick," Courtney said. "I'm his protege."

"You're a little girl." He took the staff from her hands. "Your step father must be worried sick. Go home."

"I've read Sylvester's coroner's report," Courtney said, scrambling after Carter. "There was frostbite around the bullet wounds but no bullets. It's him, isn't it. There are three dead?"

"Wesley Dodds was the Sandman, and Al Pratt was the Atom."

"Then we have to do something." No reaction. "The Sandman and the Star Spangled Kid are dead," she said. "You're the leader, what's your excuse? Please don't make me ask another team for help."

"The kids playing hero are hardly a team," Carter replied. "And who can trust the Avengers?"

"You don't give the young ones credit," Kent said. "We were like them, once.

"They can't even tie their own boots," Carter practically sneered.

"Well," Courtney said. "If you laced up your boots when Sylvester asked you to, then he might still be alive."

"Don't try to guilt me. I've got enough guilt to last me twenty lifetimes."

"What would Shayera have done?"

Carter stopped at the door and gripped the handle with a strength no one would have expected him to have. He turned to her, but there was a look of understanding.

* * *

Batman and Nightwing were staring down at the facility that had a very cold room.

"Temperature dropped sixty degrees before Pemberton's murder," Batman remarked.

"The hitman Icicle?" Nightwing was looking at his holo-computer.

"Ice around the bullet wounds and no bullets." Batman pointed to the medical facility. "Still recovering from the massive wounds he received years ago. The psyche ward."

"Supposed to be."

* * *

Courtney, Carter, and Kent came into the old meeting room. It had the display cases of their old friends.

"We're going to need him, Nelson," Carter said, walking over to the old display case.

The doctor opened his bag and pulled out the golden helmet. He put the helmet on, and in a flash of golden light, he was transformed into the golden hero he once was.

"Greetings, Hawkman," he said.

Courtney's eyes widened. "Dr. Fate?"

Carter walked over to the display case and removed the white sheet. There was his armor and hawk-like helmet and his own wings.

"It's been a long while since I made someone bleed," he said, opening the case and taking out the helmet. "Time to go hunting."

* * *

Batman and Nightwing climbed through the window of the building, but when they came to the room, Nightwing pulled out the chart.

"Been in a coma for the past fifteen years," he said after reading it. "Dead end."

Batman saw golden light coming from under the doorway and ran into the room. A man in gold and green wearing golden helmet stood beside the bed. His hands were over the patient's head, and gold light were coming from them, surrounding his head. After Batman, Alice ran into the room with Diana.

"What are you doing?" Alice asked, grabbing a hold of the man's hands.

"As always, Alice Kent," the strange man said lowering his hands. "It is a pleasure to meet you." He looked from her to the three others. "The two of you and Alice will be the greatest of your generation as long as you three remain strong together. Alice Kent as I have always seen, you are a warm light in the darkness to come. I have much to show you, friend."

The man raised his hands, and golden light surrounded him. He vanished, taking Alice with him.

"There's a sign of the staff," Nightwing said. "Oracle tracked it."

* * *

Courtney wore something similar to what her old teacher would have worn as she walked the streets. His staff was tightly gripped by her hands as she looked around her. She was the bait, the one to bring out the killer from the past and to put an end to his onslaught. The temperature dropped around her.

"Who are you supposed to be, sweetie?" The stranger asked. He had a very sharp icicle pointed at her. "The new Star Spangled Kid?"

"Star Girl," she snapped, and she pointed her staff at the man.

He only laughed as he ducked from everything she threw at him. Before he could even knock the staff from her hands, two bat-like objects were thrown at his hands, and someone glided down to the ground, landing in front Courtney.

"Get her out of here!" He growled to someone behind her, but Icicle ran off.

"You ruined everything!" She yelled at the shadowy figure. "I was supposed to get the first shot at Sylvester's killer! He promised me."

"He?" He asked her.

"Who?" A woman asked.

A man flew down from the top of the buildings, carrying a mace and having hawk wings. "Stay the hell out of our business. Next time, I won't ask so nicely."

* * *

Alice woke up in an old and dusty room. She looked around her to see white sheets covering a large round table and different cases. She removed each of the sheets. The round table said "Justice Society of America," and the pictures on the walls showed a team of twelve superheroes. The cases held different objects and tools that each hero used. One case had only a lone and cracked helmet.

They were not criminals. They were a team of superheroes.

Hawkman landed on the ground next to her.

"Why'd you bring me here?"

"Dr. Fate said you're a big deal," he rasped. "I don't see it."

"Alice Kent is not like the others," Dr. Fate replied. His eyes glowing red. "Her path is righteous."

"If Dr. Fate says she's okay, then she's okay," Courtney, Star Girl, said. "Right?"

"Why have you been watching us?"

"Sylvester wanted to bring the old team back together," Star Girl explained. "And us new kids. A new Justice Society."

"I know someone who was trying that," Alice replied.

"It wouldn't have worked," Hawkman said. "People haven't changed."

"I'd like to think that they had," Alice disagreed. "After what happened in New York last year, they were able to believe again."

"As long as they stay on their side," Hawkman remarked. "You haven't done your homework. You don't know who we are."

"You don't know who we are," Alice shot back. "None of us are the bad guys."

The doors slammed open, and Batman and Diana appeared to stand next to Alice. Diana ditched her black suit for something a little more red, white, and blue, and she had her rope at her side and metal bracelets around her wrists.

"I hope it's not too late to say we come in peace," Diana said.

* * *

"This is our responsibility," Carter said. "The people being murdered were our team mates, our friends. Once we find the Icicle, we'll fade back away."

Alice looked at Diana and at Batman. "We're not asking you to."

"All we want is justice," Carter replied.

They started arguing, but Alice whistled very loudly to shut them up.

"There was one thing I learned during my life here," Alice said when they quieted down. "Humanity's ability to hope. Sure they may be violent, but there's always that hope. Greater than anything I could have imagined. There's a murderer on the loose, and we're making it our business to help you."

* * *

Mary Jane and Peter walked into the Bugle that morning, and on Mary Jane's desk was a strange box. A very calm looking man was standing next to her desk and watched as she opened what he brought.

"The lives of a group of people were ruined," he said. "And I feel that it's time that the truth comes out. You'll find all you'll need in there."

The two of them flipped through the different mug shots and police records, and there were handwritten notes beside each one that were of interest for the two of them.

Outside the building the man pulled out his cell phone. "She got the package, sir."

* * *

He stood next to his unconscious father, and his anger was the only warm feeling he had.

"What they did to you," he said. Acid dripping each word. "Was an injustice, Dad. They took away the only family I had left. I've only just begun to take away theirs."

* * *

"The Justice Society of America was cleaning up the streets before you were even in diapers. We tried our best to stay out of the public eye, but S.H.I.E.L.D. got wind of our activities. They wanted us to work for them. They wanted us to unmask."

"And you said no," Diana said.

"We refused to play ball, so they went after us hard. One by one they uncovered our identities. They had us arrested and institutionalized. They forced us out of the skies and off the streets."

"We were ripped away from our families while trying to protect them," Dr. Fate continued.

"Why didn't you fight back?" Batman asked.

"We did," Dr. Fate answered.

"We held on as long as we could," Carter continued. "As I could. I wasn't the leader they thought I was. I've made too many mistakes."

"I've made mistakes, and I haven't quit," Alice remarked.

"Haven't quit? Haven't started. Not as a team, anyway."

"You're making this too personal," Batman accused.

"That's where our strength lies," Carter countered.

"There are still over a dozen members of the Society still out there. Jay, Ted, Alan. If we don't team up and stop the Icicle, he'll go after them next," Courtney pleaded.

"It's obvious you still care about this team," Alice said. "If you didn't, you wouldn't have kept watch over all this."

"This," Carter said, walking towards her. "Is a temporary alliance."

"There's a couple places we might catch Icicle," Batman said.

"How do you know that?" Carter demanded.

"World's Greatest Detective," Alice answered.

"One, the hospital where his father is at. Two, a place for him to replenish his icicle abilities with liquid nitrogen."

* * *

"I know," Alice said after staying with Dr. Fate. "You told me the same thing last time we met. Everyone will see me in the skies, and they will hope for tomorrow."

"Yes, Alice Kent, but you need to realize that in the darkness to come, they will look to you as their light. They will look at you with the hope of tomorrow. You will help them embrace it."

"A warm light for all mankind to share," Alice muttered to herself.

"Precisely. I see everyone's future but my own, but when I come across someone's future as bright as yours, I believe in tomorrow again. You will lead your generation just as Hawkman once led ours."

She shook her head. "Not much of a leader."

"You have been helping the heroes around here. You will be their leader, some day, and you will be the one to heal us all."

* * *

They met at an undisclosed location, not having seen each other in almost six months.

"The city looks far better now. Almost as good as new."

"Yes, well, when you have Stark convincing all his friends to fund the rebuilding project, things do get finished quickly."

"How did they take the news?"

"About as well as you would imagine. They finally pull together as a team, and now they can't even help the world when the problem lands in their laps."

"The Council was always blind about that. Phase Two was a perfect example."

"How are you with the plane?"

"She was able to convince the big three and a couple others."

"What about the older ones?"

"Their past wrongs will be brought to light, even as we speak."

"Good. From what I know, we'll need all the help we can get. The Council won't even expect them."

"Checks and balances. Got it, sir."

* * *

The six of them came face to face with Icicle in front of the hospital. They used their various gifts and skills at the same time. The fight spilled over into the streets, and people ran, not before getting grainy cell phone pictures or videos. Whatever icicles he would throw at them, Alice and Star Girl would destroy them before they would even hit their targets. Batman and Hawkman knocked Icicle out through trickery and a good punch. Diana used her rope to keep him from trying to escape.

* * *

"You're not like the others, are you Alice?" Carter asked her as he placed his Hawkman regalia back in their case. "Kids in it for the thrills or if they had a chip in their shoulder. You don't do this for glory or vengeance."

"Guess not."

"Your team is better than I thought, too."

"We're not a team. Not like yours."

"Why? Because of you?"

"I don't think we could ever be like the JSA was."

"Trust them."

"I do."

"Remember, they're people, too. They'll make mistakes. We all do. We all have to keep trying. You know, I only learned to fly after my kingdom was attacked and taken from me. It was then I realized that it wasn't the throne that was important. It was people." He was looking at the cracked helmet of his late wife. "My wife. You have the capacity to break the chains that are holding you down. When you do, what Dr. Fate envisioned will come to pass. You'll soar higher than any one of us."

"What about you? Are you going to keep your wings locked up?"

"No. I'm putting people under them. Some hacker helped Courtney and me locate the remaining members of the Justice Society, their children, and their proteges. I think the present generation could learn a thing or to from those of us who've done it before. What do you call your team any way?"

"A work in progress."

* * *

"Who was the Justice Society of America?"

There was a small number of people who read through that article, and the bitterness of the several years lifted. It described all that they did, declaring them heroes, and it helped clear their names. For the first time in years they were seen as heroes instead of the crooked criminals.

* * *

Steve found Alice after her strange few days. She was reading the article a coworker wrote, and there was a ghost of a smile on her face.

"Something tells me you were involved in that," Steve remarked.

"Actually, no. I wasn't. Dealing with something else entirely."

"Dr. Nelson was acting strange."

"He left in the middle of your session." She flinched. "What did he say to you?"

"It was a while ago, but now I'm starting to see that it made sense," Steve answered. "He said that I am the one you will need, and you are the one I will need."

She smiled at him and kissed him. "That's true.


	26. Bloodline

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

An object fell from the sky and landed into New York Harbor late one night. Waves from the crash landing swelled onto the surrounding land. Iron Man flew into the water and found a strangely designed spaceship. There was some glowing green rocks around it, and the ship was open. Its sole occupant vanished. JARVIS recorded the strange writing around the ship as Tony took the green rocks.

"Who the hell came with this?" He asked himself.

* * *

A young blonde woman stumbled her way out of the harbor. She was dressed in a strange brightly colored dress that had an "S" inside a shield. The strange city captivated her, but she was still lost. She knew that it was the place her father and uncle spoke of when they found that their world was about to die.

She walked through the strange city, and one moment, her eyes began shooting out lasers. Clamping her hands over her eyes, she started freaking out, and she began to float. She heard a strange sound next to her. Someone talking to her in a language she could not even understand. Instead of even attempting to talk to the man, she shot the lasers from her eyes at him. There was a sharp and weakening pain when he showed her a green rock, and she passed out.

* * *

Alice walked into the medical room to see a teenage girl sleeping on the bed. What she noticed was the emblem on her dress and the fact that the girl looked like she did at that age.

"So," Alice drew the word out. "She's the reason you called me?"

"Yeah, Tony thinks that she came in on the ship that landed in the harbor," Bruce answered. "Based on what she can do so far, we think it could help to have you nearby in case she attacks when she wakes up."

The girl sat up and began talking frantically in a language that even Bruce did not understand, but Alice could understand. She calmly spoke back to her, and the girl began to calm down. They talked in the strange language, and the girl flung herself at Alice and hugged her tightly.

"My cousin, Kara El," Alice said in a voice full of emotion.

* * *

Steve came into the Tower to see Alice talking with a young girl in a strange language. The two of them had a book opened between them, and apparently Alice was trying to teach the girl something. They looked like they were family, that much he did know.

Darcy was off to the side and grabbed his arm. "Did you know?"

"Know what?"

"Her cousin?"

Steve looked at the girl and went to talk to Alice. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Just found out about her," Alice said, shaking her head. "What do you expect?"

"I thought you were the last of your kind."

"So did I. She's my cousin. Apparently, our fathers planned to send the two of us somewhere safe when our home was destroyed," she said, watching her cousin trying to learn a new language and culture. "She saw her parents die before they sent her."

Steve watched as Alice helped her cousin adjust to a new world and culture. It did not take long for the girl to learn English, but it took everything Alice could do to help the girl learn to control her powers.

"You're worried," Steve commented to her when she came back from teaching Kara.

"More for her," Alice replied. "For me and even Conner, our abilities came in one at a time with enough time between them to learn how to control them. Kara, the moment she came here, all her abilities came in. It's bothering her. A lot."

* * *

"It reads 'This is our daughter, Kara. Treat her as the treasure she is.'"

Tony had Alice translated the strange markings on the ship.

"Why would they send her here, of all places?" Tony asked, more to himself.

"Same reason I was sent here, I'd imagine," Alice replied. "So we could live."

"You're not going to have her running around with you?" Tony asked, watching the girl slowly working to control her abilities.

Kara did slowly learn control, but she was having trouble understanding the culture.

"They fought aliens?" She asked, when Alice and Darcy explained the different memorials placed around the city after the Battle for New York.

"About a year ago," Alice answered.

"These are still here?" Kara asked, kneeling before a memorial for a closer look.

"No one forgets the people they love," Darcy said.

Kara looked at the memorials with tears in her eyes. It was one thing she understood, living with the painful memory of her parent's death. She began to understand the people of Earth, at least partially, and she saw why Alice would protect them. Darcy led the two of them through a mall pretty much picking out the clothes for Kara. For the past ten years, Darcy pretty much picked out Alice's clothes, so it was not any different.

* * *

Alice and Kara walked into the old farmhouse. The smell of apple pie reached them, and the distant voices of Conner and Jonathan showed that they were busy in the barn.

"Hey, Mom!" Alice called as they took off their shoes at the door.

"Allie," her mother said, pulling her into a hug. "You must be Kara?"

The teen girl smiled shyly. "I am."

They followed the older woman into the kitchen where she handed each of them a plate of pie. Not too long after that, the boys came into the house. Jonathan gave the girl as warm a greeting as his wife, and Conner eyed the girl strangely.

"You don't think that there could be others?" He asked her after awhile. "If she survived, then there could be others, couldn't there?"

"I don't know," she answered.

The two of them thought they were the last of their kind. They bore the shared pain of losing a way of life.

"Let's hope she feels the same way about her new home that you do," Conner remarked.

* * *

Kara was reading a book that Alice gave to her, saying that she loved it when she was younger. She started to have a headache, and she dropped the book to clutch her head.

_"You are a goddess among men,"_ a silky smooth voice said within her head. _"Why remain hidden? You were sent here to rule over them. Do your father proud."_

She saw herself ruling over a world of pathetic people bowing down to her, and she was a queen.

* * *

Alice rested her head on Steve's chest, and he was running her hair through his fingers. For the past couple of days, she had problems talking to Kara. The girl seemed distant and slightly angered.

"I take it now's not the time to ask for your help?" Someone asked from the other end of the room.

"You!" Alice yelled. She sat up.

"I have you know that I reformed," the man said. "I have you to thank for that, by the way."

"Who are you?" Steve demanded.

"Brainniac-5," he answered. He raised his left hand, showing a ring that they had not seen in awhile. "I'm from the 31st century, and there's something we need to talk about. Now."

* * *

The man told of a time that completely changed from what his colleagues partially described to them. There was an all world dictatorship, and mankind was enslaved.

"I have determined that the start of all this," Brainniac-5 finished. "Started now."

"Who's the dictator?" Steve asked.

"That's the problem," he said.

He showed them a symbol that made Alice's blood run cold. It was her family's symbol. The one she would use for hope.

"What did I do?" She demanded.

"Not you."

"Conner," Steve said.

Alice scowled at him, and Brainnica-5 shook his head. The man winced when he showed the next image.

"Kara."

Alice shook her head, not wanting to hear what he said, and she left.

* * *

Steve looked at the image of Alice's cousin. The descriptions of her acts were horrible, and he really, really felt for Alice. It was the image that upset him. Kara's eyes. . .

"You don't think she's under someone else's control?" Steve asked him, pointing out the strangely empty eyes.

"I don't really know anyone who could do that."

"I do," Steve said. "And he's at the Tower."

* * *

Kara was floating over the city, looking down at the people walking on the sidewalks.

_"This will be so easy for you,"_ the voice said. _"You are miles above them. You are stronger, and nothing they have could even hurt you. Now is your chance to take what should be yours."_

* * *

Alice found Kara after several hours. She was hoping that Brainniac-5 would have been incredibly wrong. The girl was watching the city with a look of disdain on her face, and that look proved her greatest fears. It was a look different people thought she would have.

"Can't you see this?" Kara told her. "They're too weak. We should rule it, make it better."

"That's not why we were sent here," Alice replied. "And I am making it better. I'm helping them."

Kara gave a dark laugh. "You're blind, Kal. And weak."

* * *

Steve led Brainniac-5 to the holding cell that Loki was wallowing in ever since his escape. When the deranged god saw Steve, he laughed.

"I was wondering when you would show up," he said in his usual manner. "You are here about your sweetheart's cousin, I take it."

"What did you do?"

"I'm only taking matters into my own hands, Captain," Loki answered. "I sought out your help, and you came out lacking. I found a way and took it. You should be thanking me."

The two men glared at the God of Mischief, who only laughed.

"The only way to help her is to hit her really hard in the head," Steve said to the other man as they left the holding cell.

Steve's phone went off, and it was Alice.

"I found her, but she's not right."

"Loki has a hold of her, somehow," Steve replied.

"Okay, fine," she said. "Gonna need your help to get the people away from her."

* * *

Kara watched what was happening around her, but she could do nothing. She watched herself trying to attack the people around her, but Alice was always there to get the people out of the way. The person controlling her felt the rage at her still there, still fighting.

"Kara," Alice said. "Kara, this isn't you. Remember a few days ago when you were impressed by all these memorials still being here?"

She knew it was not her. Someone was using her as their own weapon, and she really wanted to fight that voice in her head. To be herself again. Kara only focused on Alice.

Alice ran at her and kept a hold of her. She was whispering at the girl, telling her to fight her way through to be herself again. It took awhile, but the her cousin's voice was louder than the voice in her head.

"You gotta fight it, Kara. Fight it. This isn't you."

Kara could hear an enraged yell fill her mind as she stopped struggling, and she sagged against her cousin. The voice was gone, and she could control herself.

* * *

Alice was sitting with her cousin, and they were talking about why it was so easy for Loki could get his hands on her mind.

"I know why you were sent here, Allie," Kara said. "Our fathers wanted me to keep an eye on you as you would grow up, to keep you safe. Obviously that didn't work out."

"You're about seventeen," Alice agreed.

"So, I really don't know what I'm suppose to do," Kara continued. "He messed with that, giving me new purpose. Being here and now, that's for you. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Whatever you figure out," Alice said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "I'll be proud of you, no matter what."

* * *

"This isn't right," Brainniac-5 said loud enough for Steve to hear.

"What? That she's alive?" Steve asked, glaring at the man from the future.

"I wouldn't put it like that," he replied. "There are no records about her. It was like she never existed."

Brainniac-5 never once took his eyes off of Kara.

* * *

Kara found the Legion ring.

"There's about you," Brainniac-5 said. "You going to the future would not change history."

"Putting it bluntly," she replied. "What's it like where you're from?"

Kara listened to the vague stories of Brainniac-5's time period, and she fell in love with what he described. It was so much like the world she once lived in. She kept Alice's Legion ring.

* * *

"I made my decision," Kara told Alice.

Alice noticed that she was back to wearing the dress she wore when she fell to Earth several weeks ago.

"What are going to do?"

Kara showed Alice her Legion ring. "I'm going to the future."

Alice could not say anything. She was in shock.

"Right now," Kara continued. "Is for you. I can't move in on your destiny."

"You'll make your own," Alice finally found her words. She hugged the girl. "I know that you will do alright."

The two of them started to cry. They found each other, united in blood, but now they would be parted for good.

"For some reason," Kara said, pulling away from Alice. "I don't think this is good bye. I'll see you again."

Kara stepped away from Alice, and she and Brainniac-5 put on their rings, and the two of them vanished in a flash of purple light.

* * *

Kara looked around the city of the 31st century. It was more than she could ever imagine. There was one symbol that was held with great reverence and respect, her family's crest, and she promised herself that she would live up to the ideals of that lone symbol.

* * *

"You were too weak," Loki remarked. "I needed someone who could save my skin, and quite frankly, that is not you."

"She's a child," Alice replied through clenched teeth.

"She looks like one, but she's older than you," Loki said. "I would have saved myself."

"Always thinking about yourself," Alice said.

"Someone has to. Your mighty heroes have their hands tied behind their backs. They cannot fight against Thanos," Loki replied, defending his actions. "With them out of the way and only you, there is no one who can stop him."

_Later. . ._

Alice was speaking with the four others. Their original plan that started with the young girl who became Watchtower came to mind. They spoke about the strange thefts. It was the pictures from the actual Battle for New York that brought Hal Jordan up short.

"I've heard about them," he said. "The Chitauri. It was obvious from the beginning."

"The Council is shortsighted," Diana remarked. "They only see what's in front of them."

"Then we must deal with this ourselves," John said.


	27. Flash

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

Alice was running to save a woman from being hit, but there was a flash of red that was faster than even her that grabbed the woman out of the way of a large truck. She stopped running and stared after the flash in confusion and maybe even a bit of wonder. No one was faster than her. She paid close attention to word on the red flash, ready to figure out who the person might have been, over intervening weeks.

She read through different reports from across the country, and all described strange rescues of the red flash. At first they were focused primarily in and around the Midwest. It was not until the story of the Justice Society broke did the Flash move to New York City.

It was like he was being right where the action was.

* * *

A young blonde man stooped under the yellow police tape. He put on gloves as he looked around the body on the ground. A young woman who had her whole life ahead of her. It always hit him that she could not see past the moment of her death.

"It was a simple suicide," the detective who arrived before him said. "You're not needed here."

The young man looked around him, ignoring the other man. There were certain pieces of evidence that proved the other man wrong, which the young man pointed out to the detective's displeasure. Another crime scene technician, a woman, was busy documenting evidence. When she saw him, she scowled.

"You're the slowest man alive," she told him.

"Traffic was killer, Iris," he told her.

* * *

Alice had another encounter with the Flash, and that time, he moved slow enough for her to see him give her a small salute before she lost sight of him. She remembered a piece of information when she dug through the information on the Justice Society. The research scientist, Jay Garrick, had similar abilities. It was why he was called the Flash.

Apparently she was not the only one who was so intrigued by the mystery runner. Batman gave her a statement made by Jay of how he received his abilities. A strange combination of chemicals and a lightning storm, but it was a later meeting with an interested fan. It was after the JSA was unmasked, a young man, a fan, talked to Jay about how he got his gifts, and Jay told him everything, never once thinking that the young man would recreate that event.

The young man's name was Barry Allan.

* * *

He found out about the Blur through the usual means. Whenever she made a seemingly impossibly save, the internet would blow up with the blurry images and pictures of her mark. At first she may have focused solely in New York, but eventually she spread across the world, helping and saving any she could get a hold of. It was why he thought back to one of the few people he looked up to when he was growing up. A research scientist who went through a strange accident, and Barry learned from him how that strange night happened.

Barry ran to New York after a man in a suit spoke to him about a shadowy group who would have needed his help. He got a job to be a forensic specialist, and that was where he met her. Iris West. A woman who took no nonsense, and she considered him one. He was consistently late for work, and she would always call him out on it. It did not take long for him to see that it was always said with a gleam of laughter in her eyes.

Strangely, it was during one of their cases where they came across some interesting information. Information that made his blood practically turn to ice.

"That can't be good."

* * *

It was Darcy's conversation with Bruce that was bone chilling for Alice. A scientist friend of Tony Stark designed a robot a number of years ago, and, from what she overheard, he gave it brain patterns based off his. It made her think of the supercomputer from her dead world. The robot broke free and was at large, and it stole a strong metal called adamantium. It was virtually indestructible. It was bent on destruction. There was a suspicion where the robot that was called Ultron disappeared to, and Alice listened long enough before running off to deal with it herself.

She made it to the area where guards and researchers were either dead or dying. Alice worked to run some of them to the nearest hospital. There were too many of them, but she began to realize that the Flash was helping her take the injured to the hospital.

"What's the plan?" The Flash asked her awhile later. "I know about this thing. How are we going to stop him?"

"Run really fast," Alice answered.

* * *

There were video clips of a red and blue blur and a red flash running at cunning and durable robot. Bits of the robot were ripped off and set on the ground.

"You cannot stop me, humans," Ultron was bellowing in his robotic voice. There was a hint of frustration in his voice.

He shot at the red flash, and the red and blue blur stood in the way of it and fell to the ground, revealing a young woman. The red flash never once stopped. In fact, he went even faster, and the robot was being picked apart and dented with each pass by the flash, until all that was left was a still yelling head.

The young woman scrambled to her feet and gave to approaching worried scientist and robot's creator the head. There was a rushed promise that the programming would be destroyed.

The red flash stopped running, and there was a young man who was built like a long distance runner, which made sense when his ability was considered. He was clutching his head, and oddly enough, he would appear and disappear. The young woman turned to stare at him in horror.

"It's okay," he said with a dreamy voice and expression. "I'm about to enter the Speed Force. It's so beautiful."

In a flash of dim light, he disappeared, but the young woman refused to allow that. She ran to where he vanished and waved her hands around the area until a hand disappeared. The young woman reached into the vanishing area and slowly backed away from that area. She had a hold of the other runner.

* * *

Barry vaguely remembered the young woman pulling him from the bliss of the Speed Force, and he could vaguely hear her talking to him.

"I feel like crap," he finally mumbled out.

"You did just disappear."

Barry was able to become steady on his feet, and he noticed the symbol on her chest.

"You're. . .you're. . ." he was saying.

She stopped walking. "There's a team we're getting together."

"I'm in," he stopped her from continuing.

"I didn't even ask you yet."

"Don't care. I'm still in."

* * *

Steve heard Alice walking down the hallway, later that night. When Darcy remarked that Alice may have overheard her conversation with Bruce about the robot, Steve was worried, despite the fact that she was not like most people. He opened his apartment door to see Alice wearing a t-shirt and shorts and hair pulled up into a ponytail. She smiled at him when she came to her apartment.

"Darcy had Bruce come over," Steve said, and Alice let go of the door handle. He chuckled at her reaction.

"I don't find that funny."

"I do." He stepped aside for her to come into his apartment. "Come on."

They talked the rest of the night. He spoke of his old friend's work at becoming more himself, and how the two of them worked to get used to the strange time. Alice felt happy for him. He had the oldest family that he thought was long gone back. A feeling that she felt when her cousin and brother by choice landed into her life. She spoke of how Conner would help her parents on the farm and his time in high school.

"You trust him?" Steve asked her, surprised, remembering why he was created.

"Well, yeah," Alice said. "You trust Bucky, don't you?"

"Got me there."

Steve was content. He had Alice who loved him for who was and not for what he did in the past, and he had a life in the strange twenty-first century. He pulled her to him, and she sat in his lap. Alice rested her head against his chest. He could not help but remember S.H.I.E.L.D.'s interference of the Avengers in their fight to stop Thanos and save the world. The fact that his life with Alice could be pulled from him angered him. The fact that there was nothing they could really do also angered him.

"Allie," he said in a low voice. She looked up at him. "I love you."

"Love you, too, Steve."

His mouth went dry when he thought what he would say next. He let out a shaky breath.

"Will you marry me?"

* * *

Barry was led into the small meeting, just five other people, and each one was pretty different from the last.

"I'm sure you know who we are," one gruff voice said.

"Yeah, Hal and I happen to be friends."

The man who glowed green shrugged when the others looked at him.

"There's something big coming," the Blur said. "We decided that it would be better if we worked together."

"The Avengers did a pretty good job last year," Barry remarked.

"They may not be able to help," a woman with dark hair and a steely gaze replied. "Which is why we will take action."

Hal began to explain the coming enemy, and Barry was beginning to wonder if he fell into the pages of a comic book and not in real life.


	28. Aqua

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

Arthur Cury thought he had a great life. A wonderful wife and newborn son. A brother he could trust. He thought he had a great life. Thought.

A rebellion, led by the enigmatic Ocean Master, happened, and to keep his family safe, he left Atlantis, to find outside help. He made his brother promise him to keep his wife and son safe, and his brother was quick to promise him.

He made it to the surface world, and he knew that he needed to find help. To save his people, his wife, his son.

* * *

A man was jogging on the stretch of land close to the harbor. The water swelled dangerously close to where he was running, and he swore he saw people beneath the water. He chose to ignore that line of thought. He tried to avoid the water, but he knew that he would have to turn back. A wave caught around his ankle and strengthened its hold on him, and he could feel himself being pulled into the harbor. The runner struggled, but that only made the hold stronger.

There was a taller blonde man who swam over to him. With a wave of his hand, the runner was let go, and the stranger took the man further from the water. The man made sure the runner left safely, but he stayed to keep an eye on the swelling waves.

The runner came back to his apartment, and he was talking to his skeptical roommate. A young woman was busy writing something on her laptop and stopped when she overheard the strange conversation.

"He could control the water," the runner said. "I saw it."

The conversation went on like that, and the runner ended up describing the strange man who appeared out of nowhere and could control water. The young woman made a note to keep a close eye on him. She felt that he might help. He was placed at the top of her Watchtower list.

* * *

Steve dug through his possessions from before the war. Mostly they were old pictures of him and Bucky, but there were a couple pictures of his parents. He found the small black box that he had since his mother's death. It was his mother's ring. He asked Alice to marry him, and she did say yes. He was living off that feeling.

"I've never once seen you open that thing," Bucky remarked. He took to wearing baggy sweatshirts or sweaters to better cover up his robotic arm.

"Just needed this," Steve replied, touching the old ring.

That got Bucky's attention, and he smirked. "I see."

He pocketed the small box. "She's having me meet her father."

"You already did though."

"Her birth father," Steve said. "I think."

"Didn't he die?"

Steve shrugged. "Yes. She was pretty vague about the how."

Bucky was watching the news, and on the screen there was the tempestuous harbor. A runner almost drowned, but there was a man in orange and green who managed to save that runner. A man who came out of the water and controlled it.

Darcy's voice could be heard in the hallway: "Hey, Allie! Spongebob's friend is on the news."

"I don't see a talking starfish or squirrel."

"Doesn't matter. That guy can control water."

"Don't shout in the hallway," Alice said. "I noticed that." There was a pause. "Well, Mary Jane's calling him Aqua Man, now."

"He was controlling water," Darcy said, quieter at that point. "Couldn't she be more creative."

"It's not about the name, Darce. It's what you do."

Steve and Bucky came out of their apartment to find Alice reading something on her phone rather intently. She would flinch away every time Darcy would look over her shoulder. Alice quickly pocketed her phone when she saw Steve. She walked over to him, and hugged him.

"I've got something to check in on," she said rather apologetically. "We'll have to meet up with Father, later."

* * *

Alice arrived to the undisclosed location to speak with Bruce about the new addition to the list.

"Where's Diana?" She asked.

"Busy," he answered.

"I assume you know where to find this Aqua Man?" She asked.

"I do. He's in the other room."

He was looking out the window, a perfect view of the harbor. "I need your help. My kingdom's been taken, and my family is in danger."

"I thought you don't like it when surface dwellers get involved," Bruce said. Alice shot him a look. That man had a strange collection of knowledge.

"I'll deal with Ocean Master and the other rebels," he said. "I need someone to protect my wife and son."

"I'll take care of that," Alice said.

The man who became known as Aqua Man stared at her skeptically. "I was wondering if the Amazon would do that."

Alice grabbed a metal object and bent it into an "S" and gave it to him. He looked at her and looked at the piece of metal. Silently agreeing to have Alice guard his family. He explained the plan.

* * *

The seven Avengers met up in a strange room in the Tower. It was initiated by the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Natasha and Clint, and it was directed more for trying to circumvent their restrictions and the strange behavior of their handler and liaison, Diana Prince.

"There is no way for us to get past those restrictions," Natasha said, scowling.

"Do you not see the danger of this ignorance?" Thor demanded.

"People see only what's in front of them," T'Challa remarked. "We only have the word of a criminal. For all we know, he could be pointing the blame to someone else to make himself look innocent by comparison."

They may not have liked the people who made the decision, but the Avengers knew that the God of Mischief and Lies should not be completely trusted.

"What are we going to do?" Bruce demanded. "Wait for him to attack?"

Thor shuddered. "He has the Gauntlet. There's no telling what he would do."

The fact that the God of Thunder and the man who would normally be so calm and collected when facing an army of aliens was fearful affected their small group. They may not have fully understood what was happening, but they knew that Thor was bothered by that lone object being in the hands of Thanos.

They tried to find ways to get out of the restrictions, which mostly came from the assassin duo and Tony, but each one was shot down.

"What's up with Diana?" Tony asked Natasha.

"She spends a lot of time with Alice," she answered. "That's all I know."

"Not lately," Bruce commented.

"Vague," Cline remarked. "She's turn very vague. When she spent time with Alice, it was more like they were sharing a secret. Now, she's just being vague."

"I think it happened after a mission," Natasha said. "Dealing with a kidnapping. She's never been the same since."

* * *

He led Alice to his home. A palace in the middle of a large underwater city. They crept into the palace, and they went into the room where his wife should have been with their son. His wife and son were nowhere to be found.

"No," Arthur was saying. "No. I was too late. Too late."

"Wait." Alice used her x-ray vision and super hearing to look for the woman and the baby. "Follow me."

She was the one who led him through his own palace, coming across a locked door. All Alice did was turn the door handle, breaking the lock.

'Arthur?" A woman's voice came from the darkness. She ran into his arms and stared to weep uncontrollably. "He took our son. Your brother has your son."

"He has to be safe, then," Arthur was trying to reassure his wife.

"Your brother is Ocean Master," she said. "Our son isn't safe with him."

Alice had to restrain him to keep him from doing something that he would have regretted. She told him her plan which he reluctantly allowed for it to happen.

* * *

Arthur was caught by his brother's guards and led into his throne room. The man he once trusted was lounging on his throne and holding his son.

"Brother." Arthur had to force himself to be more civil towards his brother.

"It's good to see you again, Brother," Ocean Master said, but the coldness of his voice betrayed his real emotions. "I'm sure you would like to see your son." Arthur made one small step towards his son, but a knife was pointed at the baby. "Fine, but you both are in my way."

Arthur had his son back, and he held him close to his chest. His brother gestured to the soldiers around him.

"You would do all this for the throne?" Arthur accused.

"You were too weak, brother," Ocean Master said. "You would not fight the surface dwellers. You would make peace with them while they would slowly poison the waters! You would allow the impure to be equal with the rightful subjects. Frankly brother, you would never make a great king."

His ally appeared and grabbed his son to take him back to his mother. The guards were knocked out on the ground.

"It's just between you and me, brother," Arthur said. "If you think your cause just, then may Poseidon guide your hand true."

The two of them fought, but it was Arthur who was the stronger and more skilled one. He blocked his brother's attacks. Each one. His brother grew angered, and his attacks grew more frenzied. Arthur was more controlled. He knocked his brother's weapon out of his hands and kicked him in the stomach. Ocean Master collapsed to the ground.

"Your cause was not just, brother," Arthur said. "Take him away."

* * *

Alice and Bruce spoke of their plan to Arthur when he went back to the surface with her. Arthur listened to the two of them and agreed. They were seven.

Steve was waiting for her back at their building, and he looked strangely concerned. She gave him a brief summary of what happened, but he was still concerned.

"Okay," she said. "What's wrong?"

"You won't believe this," Steve answered.

He told a strange story that involved Diana becoming a brainwashed warrior in a group of strong woman like her.

"What happened?"

"We don't know," Steve answered. "She was pretty strange after a mission."

"I noticed that, too," Alice admitted. "Looks like we need to figure out what happened."

"Be careful, Allie," Steve said. "I don't want you to end up like her."

* * *

Diana knew that orphanage she was sent to was strange. Young girls would go there when no one would claim them, and they would never be seen again. No one ever saw young boys at that place. It was beginning to get a certain type of reputation, but still, unclaimed children were sent there.

"Granny Goodness' Home for Wayward Children," she said to herself. "She's trying to make this place seem like a good place."

An older woman was waiting for her. She had curly snow white hair, and deep lines were etched into her face. Not laughter or smile lines, but lines that were placed where a scowl would be. She wore strange green clothes. There was a woman with green hair and with eyes that had a strange shine to them waiting next to her.

"Diana," the older woman said in greeting. It would have calmed anyone, but Diana could sense a darker undertone to her voice. An undertone that made her blood turn to ice.

There was a woman with brown hair and eyes sitting off to the side, and if Diana noticed her, she would have seen the look of horror and guilt that flashed across her face.

"You are very far from home, Amazon," the older woman continued. "Let Granny take care of you."


	29. Fury

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

Ironically, it was Loki who found the answer to the disappearance of Diana Prince.

"Granny Goodness?" Loki said, fear dripping his words. "Your friend is far gone, indeed. Anyone she has gotten her hands on would never return."

"She runs an orphanage," Alice commented. "Who the hell is she, then?"

"A story told to Asgardian children to keep them out of trouble," Thor refuted.

"An Asgardian boogeyman," Tony muttered.

"How naive you are, brother," Loki mocked. "I have learned the truth. Granny Goodness lived on a place called Apokolips, and she was the one in charge of her master's Furies. The orphanages were her way of finding more. Your friend has been taken. Right now, her dark master is reworking her to be a Fury. Your friend is lost."

"No," Alice said. "She's only lost if we give up on her."

Alice found out where the orphanage Diana went to was, and Steve left with her. The building may have been warm and welcoming, but there was an air about it that could make the two of them uneasy. Even though it was a nice day, there were no children playing outside, and inside, it was like no one even lived there.

"Nothing?" Steve asked when they were walking around the empty building.

"Nothing," she said.

Alice felt weak and dizzy. There was a woman with dark hair with claw like weapons strapped to her hands. She bared her teeth in an unsettling manner, and she walked slowly and with purpose towards the two of them.

"Never thought I'd live to fight a Kryptonian," she said.

The woman attacked Alice, and she could have sworn that there was a hint of green in her hair. Her claws had a green tint to them as well, and they were far sharper and stronger than they should have been. Somehow, the woman got a hold of kryptonite and tempered it into her weapon of choice. She scratched at Alice's face, and she could feel the warm trail of the blood flowing down her face. Alice pushed the woman off her and tripped her to the ground.

Something compelled Alice to use her x-ray vision, and on the woman's forehead, etched into her skull, was an Omega symbol. She shook her head, and the woman leaped to her feet once more, screeching at the top of her lungs.

"Harriet," another woman's voice ordered. "Stand down."

Three other women, armed, appeared. One had a whip, the speaker had a rod, and there was Diana carrying a sword. All three of them had the Omega symbols branded into their skulls. The Furies.

* * *

Alice spoke with Diana, trying to get her back, and Diana sliced her sword back at her, adding more cuts and blood on her face and arms. Alice never once fought back, and she barely defended herself. Steve ran to Alice, ready to throw his shield at the sword, but the Fury's leader and woman with the rod tripped him. Like Alice, that woman was far stronger than she appeared to be, and she was able to keep him on the ground.

"Diana, you've always helped people," Alice said. "I know that you're still good. I believe you're still good. Diana, I still believe."

The leader of the Furies stared at the strange exchange, and she let him go. "Why isn't she fighting back?" She asked him, thinking that he would know more.

Diana dropped her sword, and her eyes turned pitch black before turning back into their normal color. An Omega symbol glowed on her forehead before morphing into Alice's symbol before vanishing. She collapsed to the ground. The woman called Harriet attacked Alice, and she was struggling to keep her from scratching at her. Alice's glowed red, and Harriet started screeching at her. Alice looked horrified, and her eyes were not red. The woman with the whip joined in the attack. Steve threw his shield at her, but she kicked it out of her way.

"Barda!" She yelled. "She'll stop their salvation. We owe it to our master."

Their leader hesitated, never really acting the same after seeing Alice's intervention of Diana. The pitch black of her eyes drained away, and the Omega symbol slowly transformed into Alice's symbol. She fought the two Furies, taking out a black box and shoved the two of them into a portal. She knelt next to Alice.

"She needs help," she said.

"Sunlight," Steve said. He opened the blinds, and the sunlight filtered into the wrecked orphanage.

The different cuts and bruises glowed before disappearing completely. Steve helped her to her feet, staying next to her.

"They're too far gone to be saved," Barda said. "They would have killed you. Why didn't you fight back?"

"Because I think I could've saved them," Alice answered.

Barda stared at Alice in wonder.

Diana slowly sat up and rubbed her head. "Why did you come here? She could have taken you, and that won't be good."

"Where did you send them?" Alice asked Barda.

"Back to that hell hole," she answered. "It's be awhile."

Diana and Alice looked to each other. "Fun."

* * *

"Where will you end up?" Alice asked the woman who was known as Big Barda.

"The one who was raised as Darkseid's son came here a few years ago," she answered. "I'll find him." She looked at Alice, the wonder still there. "You filled me with hope."

"Well, I was just. . ."

"It's a gift," she said. "having that affect on people. Cherish it. There are very, very few people out there who could cast the Darkness out."

Alice shrugged. "I like to believe in the best in people."

Barda left, finding the one other person who escaped the world she grew up on, and she left a promise that she would fight beside Alice if she was ever needed. There was an obvious change about her. Finally seeing hope after almost decades of despair and darkness could do that to a person.

It was Steve she found after all that. He was waiting for her and handed her a small box.

"Darcy's saying you can create your own diamonds," he said.

She gave him a small smile. "One time." Alice put the ring on.

"Don't know where I would be without you," he said, voice full of emotion.

"I should be saying that." She pulled out a small circular object. "Time to see my father." She told him, one of the very few, about the Fortress up north, and how her father managed to keep a part of himself alive to help with her training. "He's technically the head of the family and has to approve all marriages." White light surrounded them as the world around them melted away. "And, I think you'd like to see it."

* * *

They were in the crystal fortress, and it did unsettle him, bringing back the distant and cold memories. She hung on his arm which helped a little.

"How did you figure all this out?" Steve asked.

"Kara told me," she answered.

_"Kal-El, my child, you have returned,"_ a voice from over them said in greeting.

"Okay. . ." Alice said more to herself. "I'm here as a Kryptonian and a member of your house, and your daughter. In honor of our home, I am here to declare my desire to start a life-bound with this man. . .Steve Rogers."

_"Steve Rogers, do you truly wish to initiate a life union with my daughter?"_

"I do."

_"Your pledge is observed." _

The two of them smiled at each other, and Alice played with the ring on her left hand.

* * *

_"I am General Zod. You have harbored and sheltered one of my citizens. She may look like you, but she's not like you. For the sake of your planet, if you know where she is, tell. As for Kal-El, surrender yourself in the next twenty four hours or watch your planet suffer."_


	30. Zod

A/N: Please read and review!

* * *

The broadcast done by Zod showed the Blur's symbol, and there were people around the world who wanted her to turn herself over to him. Slavery was better than complete destruction. There were those who wanted her to fight against him and his army. They knew that in the moment she handed herself over to her people, the world as they knew it would vanish. The Blur was the one thing in the world that stood between total slavery and freedom. There was word that he needed a certain object, and only the Blur knew its location.

* * *

Alice stared at the metal disk that she had found in her childhood home. "What is this?"

"It is the Book of Rao," Jor-El answered. "It is said that it could transfer any of Kryptonian blood to another plane of existence, as well as other potentially sinister abilities."

"Zod wants it," Alice said, more to herself. "And not because he wants to leave this place."

"It is said that the Book of Rao can bring back Krypton."

* * *

They may have had the same powers as the Blur, but they were not like her. She used her abilities to save people, and they used theirs to trample them. Strangely, they always seemed like they were searching for something. They were in places where strange symbols and legends could be seen for almost thousands of years, scouring those areas but coming up empty handed.

In Wakanda, the little vibramium was useful against a single attacker, but they would have been overrun if their king had not though ahead. That small contingent of the invading army met the same judgement Naman gave to her pretender. They stood powerless in the middle of a group of highly trained and heavily armed and pretty angered warriors.

England would always have her own almost built-in protector. The woman who became known as Lionheart had an impact against the invaders. Her sword was not like any sword before or since. There might have been a touch of magic upon the blade that brought the invaders up short.

In Eastern Europe, a brother and sister duo were protecting the only family they knew. He would run as fast as he could, which was pretty fast, around the invaders, but it was his sister who had the power to stop them. From her hands came bright lights which caused great pain to the invading force.

Across the world, a rainbow light could be seen, and warriors who had not been seen in hundreds of years fought for humanity once more. Weapons and powers were such that Zod's forces could not stop them. Such was the might of Asgard.

In New York City, many of them were caught in webs, and one small human made great mockery of them. Warrior women descended on his armies while warriors crept up from the water, cutting away more of his army. A man surrounded by green light managed to restrain many of them as a man in black used kryptonite against them. One mighty man called lightning against part of Zod's army, and the magic of such an action would allow them to heal. Also in New York, four people with fantastic powers protected innocents from the onslaught around them.

If it was one thing he learned it was that Earth was not protected by one hero, but by groups of them who fought in her name.

* * *

Tony was the one who designed a way to activate the Book of Rao. Alice watched the different attacks around the world and saw the devastation that spread. Some Kryptonians were killed or somehow depowered, but many, many humans died to achieve those goals.

"This should make it work and send them on a fast ticket to Nirvana," Tony said when his complex design was finished. "All you would have to do is activate it."

Alice shook her head. "I can't. Once it's working, it will send all Kryptonians."

"Even you."

"Believe it or not," she said. "I do have a life here, and I saw my destiny here and so did Dr. Fate. I can't just leave."

Steve was watching the city below them. "You've inspired people all around the world." He shook his head. "Maybe. . .maybe you were meant to lead your people."

* * *

_"Might makes right,"_ Zod was saying to the still hiding Blur. _"Only the strong can survive. Have you learned nothing from the natural world of which you loved so much? My people will overtake your world. There is nothing you can do to stop me!"_

A man with muttonchops finished the last of his beer and scowled at the screen over him. "If that's the case why were you demanding she surrender herself, bub?"

"You dare mock Zod?" Someone demanded behind him.

"He ain't so special," the man replied, asking for another beer.

He expected it, the punch, but he never would have dreamed that it would hurt as bad. The man made the mistake of thinking that the punch killed him. It was an honest mistake, though as countless others made the same one before. He scrambled to his feet, still feeling the bone shattering pain as he cracked his neck.

"You want to dance, bub?" He said. He clenched his fists as metal claws appeared. "Then lets dance."

* * *

Darcy used her modified taser on the Kryptonian that was going after her. It was modified in the sense that it would affect them because of the kryptonite added to it. He went to attack her, but it was Bruce who stood between the two of them.

The Kryptonian chuckled. "You think that will be enough?"

Bruce's eyes turned a bright green which Darcy saw.

"He has anger management issues," she said. "And you're not helping."

The unassuming scientist grew large and green, and the Hulk let out a large roar that echoed across the city.

* * *

Zod and his Kryptonian army flew to the top of the Tower where Alice was waiting with both the Book of Rao and the device that would activate it.

"The Book of Rao won't destroy us," Alice said, holding up the small disk. "It can send us to a world we can call our own. Krypton will live again."

"She's lying," Zod said to the group. "We all know where her true allegiance lies."

"You say that we can have our own world?" A woman asked. She looked to Zod. "Why should we fight for a world when we could be given one?"

"This can be our own world!" Zod told her.

"He just wants people to fawn over him," a man remarked. "Always has."

The Kryptonins looked at each other, a silent agreement being formed.

"Kal-El," another woman said. "Take us home."

Alice placed the golden disk on the console that Tony had designed, and they were surrounded by golden light.

* * *

"She's made you happier than I've ever seen you," Bucky demanded. "And you're just going to let her go? You're crazier than I thought."

All around the world, golden light took the Kryptonians, sending them to a world they could call their own. Steve said nothing.

* * *

Alice watched as Zod pulled out a blue kryptonite dagger, becoming human in its presence. She moved closer to him, also becoming human. The two of them were not ascending to the new world.

"I told you," Zod said, pointing the dagger at her. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Blue kryptonite will prevent you from ascending like the others."

"Better to rule in Hell," Zod said, as Alice grabbed a hold of his arm. "Than to serve in Heaven."

He slashed the dagger across her stomach leaving a cut, and he tried to slash at her neck, but she blocked the dagger with her arms.

"Since you love the humans so much," Zod mocked. "Let's see you fight like one!"

He came at her with the dagger, and she kicked him, tripping him up, but Zod still had a hold of the dagger. They fought, and Alice led him closer to the edge of the Tower.

Zod went to stab her, but she held his arm back. "Unlike you, I will lead from the throne, not from the shadows. Every human will kneel before Zod."

He pushed her closer to the edge. Alice looked behind her.

"You already destroyed my first home," she said. "I won't let you take this one."

She let go of his hands, and he stabbed her with the dagger. He watched her fall from the Tower as the golden light removed him as well, and he could have sworn she was smirking at him as she fell.


End file.
